Megaman Battle Network 5 Disconnect: Dark Empire
by Ghost501
Summary: The final battle between Nebula Gray and the Hikari brothers is coming to an end. But what if the events in these final segment of the main game story line was...altered? What would happen if Dr. Regal had one more card up his sleeve, a surprise ace in the hole? Would the Hikari brothers save the world from evil? Or would one of them discover true darkness and then...use it.
1. Episode 1 (Pilot)

Ghost: Ta da! Finally! I've been doing so much DN that I've really been neglecting to break into my other worlds. Or better yet, creating new ones. Anyway, just to get this out of the way. The events in this story ARE NOT affiliated with any events in DN. Let's just call this another AU. And as for how I'm writing this, I'm going to do this episode style. Well, enough of me talking. Let's start the show! Oh, but first listen to this music celebrating one of my favorite animes and my first video game hero: watch?v=4meeC-JRJcg Completely unrelated but why not ya know?

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BUT! We have something very important to take care of...WINNERS OF THE FIRST ROLL MERGE CONTEST!

So first off, I would like to say thanks to all who submitted. Not sure if it's sad that I really couldn't come up with my own designs for a power I created, but it allowed you guys to shine and boy did you all ever! You guys made it hard to choose which Merge design to pick, but I inevitable had to make a decision.

There are two places, the main winner and the runner up. Runner ups of course are pretty much the second places while the main winners are the Merge design that has been selected.

I'm just happy that this series got into a few people's head enough to actually create designs for it. So, all in all, thank you guys so much for it. I checked in the middle of May and the series is up to 18k views and somewhere around 60 favs. From a guy who hasn't even had a one year aniversary yet on this site, I think that's amazing (I haven't even gotten close to that many views on YouTube and I've been on for three years). Anyway, can't say it enough...thank you and let's get on with this before I continue stalling. (Thanks shout-out to Gavzilla as always)

Please refer to my profile to check out the designs! Fanfiction makes using links a pain in the rear end sometimes so it's just easier for me to hyperlink in my profile.

Pyra:

_Main Winner_: **BalanceM88** _Runner Up:_ **AnimeGirl257**

Glacia:

_Main Winner: _**AnimeGirl257** _Runner Up: _**BalanceM88**

Voltra:

_Main Winner: _**AnimeGirl257** _Runner Up:_** terratasha**

Either way, well done everyone! Roll really does appreciate it! So, next contest? Next contest. This one's date will be **July 26th midnight! Same submission rules as last time!**

Terra Merge: Wood Element, Green Color, Gaia Break: Cracks all panels and any panel Roll hovers over gets turned into a Grass Panel.

Aura Merge: Wind Element, Gray Color, Gale Push: Blows all opponents backwards. Removes all auras. Roll goes invisible while the wind is blowing to disorient enemies.

There's going to be one more contest after this one when I decide on the final merge but for now ponder on these!

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Now...on with _Dark Empire_!

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**Episode 1: Put Out The Light**

"Now, Megaman! Holy Dream! Attack +30! Download!" Lan said as he downloaded the chips into his PET. Despite Nebula Gray not having any panels underneath him, they had more than enough holy panels to get the job done. The light blue navi turned to his enemy after catching himself from a previous dodge. While no one else could see them, Megaman saw his purple rings of data surrounding him compress themselves into his buster.

"You're finished Nebula!" Megaman said as the holy panels disappeared from around him and condensed their power into the small buster. The blue bomber, his color now returning to its proper shade of blue, took aim and fired. Several large blue orbs flew towards the dark purple somewhat lion-like virus.

The beast swiped at the first one, causing it to lose its hand in the process. As it roared in pain, the other orb slammed into its chest. Before it could register the fact that it was getting blown to shreds, the final energy sphere impacted it. The beast howled as its data collapsed. In seconds, all that was left was the small flame that gave birth to the beast.

"Is it over?" Lan asked as the signs of movement from the virus seem to decrease.

"Hmm…" Dr. Regal thought as his finger hovered over a button. How had he been bested by a child and his navi? A man of his intellect should have been able to figure out a way to deal with this child long ago. The man flashed his eyes from the boy to the screen in front of him. He had had him in the palm of his hand. How the hell had Megaman broken free of the Dark Chip? The only man brilliant enough to create a vaccine chip for it was Dr. Hikari and himself. However, both of them had been in his base the whole time while Dark Mega had been operational. So how in the world did Megaman not only beat the chip, but then used its power to make himself more powerful? Dr. Regal grimaced as his other hand tightly clenched. Megaman was indeed not a normal navi. So then what was he?

"Do not underestimate the Dark Power!" Regal roared as he activated Nebula's revival program. It would take a few minutes before the beast would reform, but it would give him enough time to do what he needed. He typed in a few commands before slipping in a chip into the system. Infecting Megaman was one thing; now it was time to see if he could survive total corruption. He smirked; Megaman was just a navi. An extraordinary one no doubt, but still only data. He could still be manipulated and corrupted. He just needed to be strangled and drowned in it before he succumbed. Now, it was time to use it.

"This isn't good," Megaman murmured as he starting firing at the purple flames that were coming his way. When they surround him, he could feel something beyond the burning warmth they gave off. He could feel something cold and dark. It felt unnatural, yet it wasn't completely foreign to him at all. In fact, it was kinda pissing him off.

"Back off!" Megaman yelled trying now to punch at the darkness that was beginning to form around him. He could feel the rage inside of him bubbling. He wanted to fight back. Not just against the flames, but against everything. His chest felt a little heavy as a tiny bit of discoloration began to form on his navi symbol.

"Megaman!" Lan said, surprised by his navi's sudden outburst. Then as he took a closer look at the navi, he could see his armor darkening. His brother's movements were becoming less strategic and more of a general punch. Almost as if he didn't care where he was throwing them anymore. With every punch he threw, Megaman's armor was becoming more and more responsive to the evil energies around him, "Hang in there Megaman! Life Aura!"

The PET crackled with sparks as the chip changed from a Life Aura to a Dark Aura. Lan gaped as the device began to report several errors. He was beginning to lose control of Megaman from the PET. Every now and again, the device reported that the navi data was either corrupted or that the navi was disconnected from the device.

Dr. Regal smirked as he saw the effects of his Overload Chip were a complete success. As the dark flames left Megaman in response to his aura and began to circle around the blue sphere to once again form Nebula Gray, he couldn't help but laugh internally. With the Overload Chip inside the SoulNet Server, any battle chip used on the infected navi would then become a Dark Chip. Megaman could resist the Dark Chips, but could he resist this much evil around him? Or rather, in him. He didn't care what it would take to corrupt Megaman. If he went down, then he wouldn't be around to stop Nebula Gray. Better, Nebula Gray would be embodying the most powerful navi Regal had ever seen. Then...Regal would have full control, "Now, let's just see if this works. Quickly, Nebula Gray! I don't care what it takes! Install yourself into Megaman. EXE now!" The purple monster threw a fist at the blue navi.

"Megaman! Program Advance! Sword! Wide Sword! Long Sword!" Lan yelled as he activated one of their signature PAs. However, once again, the PET crackled and the blade changed in Megaman's hands as it became dark blue in color. The navi stared at the blade with heightened interest. He raised his green eyes and then intercepted the attack. Midnight flames surrounded the two combatants as Nebula Gray charged again. Megaman leaped back, avoiding the blow. Every part of him wanted nothing more than to destroy this beast, but he was beginning to forget the reason why he wanted to.

"Alright Megaman! Let's make sure he's gone this time! Sanctuary! Holy Dream! Attack +30! Double Paint! Download!" Lan yelled. The shock that ran through his body caused him to scream in pain. In fact, the metal around his neck intensified it, knocking him out due to the pain. The "holy" chips were the worst since they were the most good chips to convert.

Unfortunately, Lan was not the only one who was having a difficult time. A dark aura appeared around Megaman as Dark Panels that had formed around him were absorbed into him. All this Dark Energy around him, he could feel something snap. Several things really. There was a new battle field. One inside of him. Only this time, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to win.

Nebula Gray was reached back and struck its fist into the ground where the distracted Megaman was standing. An explosion occurred when Gray made contact as the Dark Energy that had tried to go into Megaman's buster was unleashed. Through the blast, the beast disappeared when his fist made impact with Megaman.

"AHHHH!" Megaman roared as he tried to stop Nebula Gray from installing itself into his systems. The punch had shattered his navi icon, leaving him incredibly weak and on the verge of deletion. That and the internal war raging inside of him made it difficult to try and stop a malevolent being from forcibly downloading itself into him. He squirmed on the ground as he screamed and his eyes rolled in the back of his head.

"Only one navi has ever been such a pain in my side as you. I guess I should congratulate you Megaman. However," Dr. Regal said as he increased the output of SoulNet, causing the rest of the NetOps in the room to lose consciousness due to their closeness to the server. Dr. Regal chuckled as his own body was beginning to succumb to the pressure around him. He set the computer to lower the levels back down again after five minutes. That would give Nebula Gray enough time to install, "It's time for your final curtain call navi. Enjoy oblivion. When you wake, you will be nothing but a shell for Nebula and nothing more than my puppet."

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"_Get away from me!" a small boy yelled as he hurled another blue orb at the dark lion. The two warring parties were in the Grand Hall, known best as the Megaman's heart. The boy breathed hard as he noticed the wall behind him was beginning to break down. If the beast pounded on it anymore, he would have direct access into Megaman's System Core data and would have successfully have taken over. But that wasn't what he was worried about. No, it was what was underneath them that he feared the beast finding. The Soul Core. Without it, he would fade away into nothing. _

_Hub glanced back nervously at the beast who had shown up suddenly in his space and was trying destroy him and everything else. He needed to get this thing out of here. However, he could feel his power slipping away from him. Hub's face fell as the lion grew larger. The beast reminded him much of the size of a dragon. It was bad enough he had that dark knight running around a few moments ago. And then the warrior had smirked and dropped back. Next thing Hub knew, the knight had turned into the monster he was fighting._

_The lion roared as a blast left his mouth and impacted the ground underneath Hub. He looked back up with green eyes, trying to keep his focus on the fact that he could slip and fall to his doom at any moment. The crater underneath him seemed to go down endlessly, but he knew what was at the bottom of it. The beast looked hungrily as it roared in delight._

_No. Over his dead body…...okay maybe not the best thing to say at this time! Hub let go of the ledge he was holding and fell down down down. Nebula seemed to realize this and fired a dark flame behind him. Hub pulled his arms in, hoping to fall faster. He needed to get to his core. Maybe he could then lock it away and protect it from the darkness around him. The soul knew what evil lied within him as did it in every human. He knew that this power in a sense was a part of him. But that didn't mean that he had to let it control him._

_The beast roared as flames engulfed the core in a bright light. It seemed to sigh as it turned back into the dark knight. He glanced at the flaming core with crimson eyes. Well, at least the he had taken the fall. It seemed as if he was trying to isolate himself from the rest of the body. Ah well, it wouldn't matter once he had taken over. The knight took out a buster and fired at the wall that the boy had tried so hard to protect. He had finally made it to the System Core. Now, he could truly have some fun. He extended his hand as black flames surrounded it and the place he was in was beginning to collapse into ruin. Into his room. His territory. His body._

Megaman screamed as he gripped the ground. He could feel the only light in him go out and replaced with something much colder. It was like someone had just blown out his reason for living and replaced it with dark desire. His armor darkened to a midnight blue. His navi symbol was reformed and changed; it was white where red, purple where yellow, and dark blue where black. His helmet cracked and fell to the ground, releasing his auburn hair. His eyes were a deep crimson red. As his cries died down, he became aware of himself. He was no longer Megaman, but rather something darker. Even more so than Dark Mega.

Dark Hub shook his head and looked around him as he stood to his feet. Several navis groaned out in pained. It seemed like the only ones who had been spared his insane episode was Roll and that was using the term lightly. She seemed roughed up and part of her antennae had been broken. Still though, she seemed like the only one who was still awake. He got up from the ground slowly and prepared himself for whatever still wanted to attack him. The navi's eyes snapped down to his foot when he felt someone grab it. At his ankles was a damaged Colonel.

Dark Hub looked at the navi unamused. "Mega…man…" Colonel groaned as the navi shook his hand off. When his foot came down on him, Colonel immediately could feel a dark aura around his friend. The navi's crimson red eyes bore holes into the black swordsman. The black navi clenched his jaw, determined not to yell in pain from the force Megaman had brought down on his hand.

"The name's not Megaman," Dark Hub smirked as he saw the fear in Colonel's eyes. He turned his gaze over to the pink one who was still standing…barely. As the dark navi looked around he made a note to self, when getting into an internal fight with his lighter half make sure to have better discipline. Even though he was fairly certain that Hub had either been destroyed or locked away, he would hate to have a..."discussion"...like that again with subordinates around. Somehow, he had managed to destroy much of SoulNet and any navi that had gotten in his way. Much of Team Colonel was still standing…er…lying badly damaged on the ground. Dark Hub rolled his eyes and approached the pink navi.

Roll cowered back, "Stay away from me." The pink navi had never been more scared in her life. Every time she had been in trouble, she had known that Megaman would come to save her. Now, Megaman was the villain. The navi's eyes darted. She was the only one left. Gutsman and Glyde were deleted. Knightman was right on the verge. Shadowman had fled. Colonel and Tomahawkman had seen much better days. Toadman and Numberman…she barely saw what happened to them after they had been thrown over the edge. She just hoped that they were still recoverable.

"I would, except that there appears to be no one else left to talk to. You wouldn't want me to go insane again would you? I hear that happens when someone is all alone," Dark Hub commented as he walked closer. Roll caught herself quickly and turned behind her. She had almost gotten the same fate as Toadman and Numberman. She looked back in front of her to see the dark navi right in front of her. Mega's kind green eyes were gone and replaced with red calculating ones.

"Please…don't hurt me…" she whispered as tears almost sprouted from her eyes. She was going to be deleted in the worst way possible. She knew it. Anyway else but not by him. She knew navis didn't have a god but she was praying that she could be deleted any other way than by Megaman's hands. She closed her eyes as she saw a hand go up. This was it! He was going to push her over the edge! Her eyes snapped open as she felt something on her cheek, "Too weak for my type. But still, I don't really have a reason to destroy you."

Dark Hub didn't really remember what had happened while Nebula Gray had installed himself. He only assumed that the fight that had happened internally had reflected itself in the real world and he had done all this in a different mindset. However, it didn't pay to have such a reckless image of him already with barely even a minute to his name.

The navi's eyes flashed as he noticed Colonel struggle back up to his feet. Dark Hub pulled Roll close to him and held her tightly. She shrieked and the sudden movement but was at least happy he hadn't pulled out his buster.

"Listen here Colonel, you move an inch closer and I'll delete her. Now, I'm going to leave and you won't be following. I even think you're behind me and I kill her and come for you. Do you really want that data on your hands before you meet the same fate Colonel?" Dark Hub asked. Roll shivered. How could anyone so nice turn into this? She knew that something had happened to him, but didn't know much beyond the fact it had something to do with the purple beast that had disappeared about seven minutes ago.

"Me…ga…man. Fight…it…" Colonel groaned as he took a weakened step back.

"I told you. I'm not Megaman. The name's Dark Hub. And I believe the two of us," he said looking at the female navi in his hands quickly, "have got to go." The dark navi teleported both himself and Roll out of the damaged SoulNet. As he left, some of the systems came back online. The pressure of the evil coming out of the network was alleviated. Megaman was gone. Nebula Gray was gone. Dark Hub was here…and he was entirely worse than Dark Mega or Nebula Gray could have ever been.

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Roll coughed as the pressure around her neck was released. She didn't have to because she didn't breathe but she couldn't fight her programming. She looked back at Dark Hub who seemed ready to ditch her. Just as well really. She could get back to Mayl now that she was free. As she got back up, she squashed the urge to call out to him. She wanted to so badly, but those eyes told her otherwise. She had seen beyond them and knew that Megaman was gone. Maybe suppressed deep down inside, but not anywhere close to rising again. She had lost him. She lost her Mega! The realization hit her like a sack of Metagels falling on top of her.

Roll sank to her knees and started crying. Dark Hub stopped for a moment and looked behind him for a second before continuing to walk around. Roll looked back up through bleary eyes. Why? Why did it have to be this way? What did anyone do to deserve this? Hub didn't deserve any of this. He didn't deserve to be turned into the cold being he was now. So why was he condemned to these fates? Wasn't it bad enough that he had died twice now? Her answerless questions only cause more tears to spill as she tried to stop herself from crying. However, as she somehow managed to do this successfully, she noticed that it was getting darker.

She heard Dark Hub curse as he fired several shots into the air. Too late she realized what all the fuss was about. The darkness was the firewall covering the area. A strong one too. Roll herself cursed as she began to notice the intense energy that surged in this network. It felt dark and evil. She got up to her feet and tried to find a link to get out of her, but all of them were going dead. She tried to establish a link between her and her PET but the firewall was giving her static. In minutes, the area was surrounded.

Roll could feel fear seize her whole being. What was this place? As she backed up, she walked into Dark Hub. Mostly out of instinct, she seized the navi tightly. Dark Hub merely chuckled at the frightened navi as he looked back up at the darkened sky, "I hope you didn't have anything to do in the outside world. Welcome to Black Earth. A network in which darkness rules and the central core of this place has just thrown up a firewall to prevent anything from leaving."

"Wh-h-h-at?" Roll stammered as she tried to process the information.

"You see my presence seems to be inciting the other residents here. So much so that that the place felt a need to protect the world from it. After all, it would be bad if the birthing place of pure Dark Souls would allow us to be free."

"Us?" Roll didn't understand.

"If you had left a moments ago, you could have avoided this. But you see," Roll could feel Dark Hub's grip on her. A sudden cold washed over her, "only darkness exists here. And if you don't convert, I'm afraid that soon you won't be around for much longer."

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Ghost: Phew! Well, that's an episode! What'd you guys think? Sorry about the MMBN5 recap, but we had some ground to cover over again and well...I thought it was fun anyway. So, man's evil had installed itself into the only navi with a human soul; Team Colonel has been trounced; Roll's been kidnapped and placed in the one area that no one wants to be in; All the NetOps are going to be in recovery mode for a while. Well, I say that's a lot that happened don't you?

On that note, Ghost501 logging out! Don't forget to review! *starts singing* Call me a sinner, call me a saint... (Guess the song and you get a cookie from...um...who's alive and not in danger of being turned... Got it! *reachs into a portal and pulls out a baby navi. Stream will give you a cookie! *MMJr. I just call him Stream).

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Oh for everyone needing a recap on Roll's Merges break down and element...

Roll (Normal): Recovery Navi type, Roll Arrow (Break Element), Roll Whip

Roll's Visor (Cursor Element)

Pyra Merge: Fire Element, Blaze Circle: Creates a ring of fire around Roll, BU - Flame Arrow

Glacia Merge: Water Element, Freeze Dome (Obstacle Element): Creates an igloo around Roll, BU - Icicle Harpoon

Voltra Merge: Elec Element, Thunder Blast: Confuses all enemies with the sound of thunder, BU - Sonic Arrow

Terra Merge: Wood Element, Gaia Break (Ground Cracking Element): Cracks all panels, BU - Thorn Spear

Aura Merge: Wind Element, Gale Push (Invis Element): Removes all auras, blows enemies back, Roll "disappears" as the wind blows, BU - Air Barrage

So the only elements I have used are Sword and Plus. Sword's an offense ability so that's off and Plus...yeah no. Not going through the element that gives me Number Soul. Bad memories. So yeah, every element has been used! So what's the final merge? Let you know when I've got it penciled down. Have some ideas...

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Update: ...Friday (Please don't kill me...)


	2. Episode 2

**Favoriters/Followers: **ShadowDusk94, I'm Yu, KnightNicole

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**Roll Merge Contest Deadline: July 26 midnight (Check Profile for details, or last chapter)**

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**Profile Poll Up: **This is kinda of a personal one. I want to know what kind of stories you guys like from me. So, I've put up the options since I really only do four kinds: Random ones like this story, the Game Arc, the Shenanigan Arc, and the DN Series. Go vote now! Who knows, the option that gets the most may see a story for it in the future.

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**Episode 2: Six Years, Many Changes**

_Six Years Later…_

_After everyone woke up, Dr. Regal was finally arrested for a list of crimes including Net terrorism and kidnapping. It had been touch and go for a while. After Regal had been arrested, the reaction of the ordeal had its toll and triggered an eruption. The other navis other than the ACDC crew's were recovered. Many of them required plenty of repair, but they were alive. Team Colonel was shortly disbanded after they recovered and Regal was scheduled for his hearing. However, the reports that followed carried an extra heavy tone for the children affected by the ordeal. _

_According to the Colonel (the only one who had been awake during the fight), Megaman became a dark soul navi and took Roll somewhere onto the Net while Gutsman and Gylde had been deleted. Apparently, when Roll had gone to try and talk sense into the slowly turning insane navi, he had hit her hard enough to push her back some feet, enraging Gutsman. From there, it didn't go well. A damaged Gutsman was thrown into Gylde, leaving them both open to attack. While other members of Team Colonel tried to intervene, Megaman despite his mindless state had managed to use some battle chips for his aid and further delayed the needed help. This lead to a minibomb explosion which had thrown Numberman and Toadman, who were later recovered, over the edge. The fight soon became more and more one-sided despite the other side being a one man army._

_Seeing the destruction, and being a victim of it himself, Shadowman decided to rather flee the scene and fight for another day. Despite his cowardice, I wonder what would have happened if the others had followed his lead and done a tactical retreat. Either way, soon Knightman's own Royal Wrecking Ball was used against everyone and as the weapon leading to Gutsman's deletion. The knight had been in shock of being used as a smoking gun and hadn't seen a Dark Drill until too late. He was lucky to survive. Tomahawkman was the second to go down. His injuries were not as great, but still heavy after Megaman had somehow missed an attack from Colonel which he received. Gylde hadn't lasted long; the navi was no battle expert and relied too much on rarer battle chips to survive. After dispatching Colonel, the Dark Sword soon meet its final victim._

_Even rethinking it know, I'm not so much impressed that Colonel remembered everything in detail that happened that day. It must have been quite a chilling battle._

_Despite this, mostly everyone was happy with the final results. However, the ACDC NetOps were never the same; although Gutsman's NetOp and Gylde's NetOp eventually made recoveries. Not fully by a long shot, but stable. More than I can say for the other two. Over the years, Lan's been banned from SciLab seeing as how we can't seem to keep him away from the archives. He's convinced himself that they're keeping the Pulse Transmission System somewhere on the property and that he must endanger himself by manually going into the cyber world to find Megaman. Roll's NetOp, what was her name again, Mayl? That's right. Mayl Sakurai. Hmm...come to think of it, no one has seen much of her anymore either. If I recall, there was a domestic issue with her a while back...or was it a hospital call? With Lan on the fritz and her navi gone, things have really been hard for her. Hard for us all I guess…._

___No one has seen Megaman in over six years; Roll either. Either they both got deleted or they're held up somewhere. I'm not sure what to hope for anymore. All I do know is that I will continue to fight for the continued peace that Megaman had wished for. It's my duty as an official navi...and as a friend._

"Long Sword! Download!" Protoman dodged the incoming Gaia Hammer and slashed through the weakened armor of the virus. He turned his head to see a few more of the defensive viruses slowly making their way to him. The red navi gauged his enemy, waiting for the iron armor to drop as they somehow continued to move towards his location. _Three. Two. One!_ The iron coating dissipated and the virus barely had time to bring down the hammer as Protoman swiped it with his pink blade. As Protoman scanned the field, he noticed that the last one had disappeared. Probably moved away once it realized who it was messing with.

"One got away," Protoman said.

"We'll worry about that later. Seems like it was just a skirmish. It probably ran while it still had the chance. Anyway, let's focus on the task at hand. We're going to need to get farther than this. You have the clearance codes, right?" Chuad asked, his face on the screen. He still had the same hair style of childhood days, but he was much more adultish now. He was actually somewhat a duplicate of his father, minus the suit and plus the IPC jacket of course. He was normally in a polo shirt with Protoman's symbol on the chest pocket and pants. Despite being a serious person, the boy never really liked dressing up and reserved those clothes for meetings.

"Yes, I'll be putting them in once I get to Undernet 4. Hopefully, this is not what we think it is." Protoman said as he dashed off deeper into the Undernet. Since the collapse of Nebula, activity in the server had dwindled severely. Many navis hadn't seen a point in continuing their activities there now that all the major organizations had been debunked. Several parts had been left to disarray so quite a few paths were dangerous to walk on. He was amazed that viruses still found it suitable to live here. Then again, they probably didn't care.

"Hopefully. Well, as long as he doesn't catch wind of this, we should be alright," Chuad murmured. The boy had become more and more geared to taking over his father's company during his high school years and thus was more goal oriented than ever before. Or rather the time he was supposed to be in high school. He had already graduated out of college a long time ago.

"Yeah, that would complicate things," Protoman agreed as he began to slow his pace, "So this is the lock? Doesn't seem that secure. I might just be able to break it myself." The red navi commented as he entered in the passcode.

"Better to do things by the book. Besides, this is a time of peace. Net crime is the lowest it's ever been. There's no need to keep such a desolate area under that much security. Besides, we don't even know if this is the right sector of the Undernet." Chuad said as he typed in a few commands into his PET. '_But it is beginning to look more and more like it...'_ He thought as Protoman cleared the security and ventured forward.

"Still, if we're aware that the Undernet may contain a path to Black Earth, shouldn't we have gotten rid of this place?" Protoman said as a C-Slider appeared at his side. The board had been considered obsolete after most of the the paths needed for it were taken out of the Net; however this part of the Undernet had not been included in that update.

"It takes time and money to delete a network this big. No one even knows how far it goes down anymore. Over so many years, this place has been built on and over so many times. We no longer know just what this place contains. Better to just lock it down and hope what is down there stays down there. And besides, we're still unsure of just what Black Earth is. It's only ever been reported by Lan and now with his condition, he's not the best source to ask about this," Chuad grumbled. He too had never agreed that the Undernet should have just been overlooked in the manner it was, but it couldn't be helped.

"I suppose," Protoman said as he boarded deeper into the network, "As far as I can tell though, this place is just as dead as the rest of the Undernet."

"Then this should be an easy mission," Chuad said, once again looking back down at his PET. The indicator of the power source they were looking for was definitely beginning to go berserk. They were getting closer, "Still. Remain vigilant."

"Roger," Protoman noted as he got off the rails and continued to dive in deeper into the Undernet. Within five minutes, he got to the spot in question. A single dark portal gave off an ominous power in Undernet 6-4r, "So that's how people get into Black Earth...well, that is if it is Black Earth. You think it's still active?"

"If it's generating this much power, then more than likely. Protoman, delete that thing now!"

"Roger!" His blade began to glow white as the shutdown sequence code began to embed itself in it. He raised his sword and prepared to strike it down until the code was wasted on yellow strands which wrapped itself around the blade. As their hold tightened around it, there was nothing the red navi could do but watch as his blade was broken.

"What the?" Protoman said, suddenly alert and looking for his attacker. He soon found it in the form of a navi who was making its way out of the darkness. The strands began to dissipate as she landed on the pad. The navi was definitely decorative, wearing what almost seemed like a white shawl over top a greener bodysuit. On her forehead was a red pendant and she seemed to have swords for hands. Or perhaps, that was just how she looked in battle.

"Sorry red warrior, but I cannot allow you to destroy this link," the navi said, "Now, disappear from this place. Otherwise, I shall delete you without prejudice."

"Looks like talking is out of the question. Protoman! Battle routine! Set!" Chuad said, loading in a new chip folder. Things couldn't be peaceful forever he guessed.

"Execute!"

* * *

"Long Sword! Download!" Chuad downloaded the chip as an elongated blue sword appeared on Protoman's hand. The red navi charged forward as the female navi merely laughed. Protoman growled as he brought his sword down on the navi.

She changed her swords into her hands, merely raised her palm, and grabbed it, much to the surprise and displeasure of Protoman and Chuad respectively, "So, this is the power of the great Protoman and Eugene Chuad. Hmm...quite sad. I had been hoping for much more of a challenge. You're barely worth the fight." She smirked before breaking the sword in her hands. As he fell, the white navi picked him up and sent him across the path.

A single ring formed in her hand. Well, time to dispose of him. Though she had to wonder what the fate of this battle would have been if his own dark soul was fighting him. Apparently, her leaving had caught his attention. Or perhaps he sensed his lighter half right outside of the gate. However, before the navi's attention was caught by something else. Someone was getting to close to the Dark Link. She could feel it.

The navi wiped the look of displeasure from her face before waving her hand. Out of shadows, Protoman's Dark Soul stepped forth with a Dark Sword already on hand, "I'll leave you to him. Make sure you dismiss him properly, Dark Protoman." She said before disappearing back into the dark hole.

"What just happened?" Chuad asked, confused at her sudden departure.

"Looks like something else caught her attention. Maybe for the better," Protoman grumbled getting back on his feet and faced his dark clone. As he rushed Dark Protoman, he formed his sword and began hacking. Of course, his dark soul countered with perfect speed. Well...this was going to be a thing.

* * *

"Aren't you done for the day?" a blue haired woman asked. Miyu still hadn't gotten completely used to having someone else working in her shop even after all this time, but she was glad for the extra help. With some of the more recent updates, some of the older versions of PETs were, for some reason, ending up in her store. There were also the occasional onslaught of old relics that would come in from people just clearing out the clutter in their homes. Plus, the young woman in question needed the stability from what Miyu had heard.

"Is it 6 already? Oh, I didn't notice," the red haired teenager replied. From the look on her face, someone would find it hard to believe that she had graduated from high school only just last week. Then again, the teen didn't really seem to smile much nowadays. In many ways, she seemed to reflect some of the relics that were in glass cases in the store; just a touch away from crumbling.

"It's 8, Mayl," Miyu said flatly, "It's time for you to go home." Her boss said as she pinched her nose. The seventeen year old had always had a habit of "accidentally" staying later than she really should have. Miyu had a hard time believing it was always purely accidental after she had left late by "accident" for the third week in a row after working here.

"Oh, sorry," she said before she went off to the back room to grab her things. Miyu walked up to the desk that Mayl normally sat at. Well, she was at least good at cataloging everything that came and left through the door. One hell of a researcher too. Since she had been hired, she truly had made a difference in how this store operated. At least, she had made it easier on herself and Skullman.

"Still as dedicated as always," Skullman commented from his PET. Since Mayl had come in, he really didn't have as much stuff to sift through which allowed him to go around the network and get rid of some of the virus groups that had learned his virus check routine and had thus avoided him. The small network had never been more virus free. It had gotten to the point where now customers could jack their navis in without much interference from the viruses in the area, which also had its benefits.

"Dedicated? Not the word I would use," Miyu said as Mayl popped back in. She probably just remembered that since she wasn't in school anymore, she hadn't brought in her backpack for her to get in the back.

The teenager made a small smile, forced and completely by habit, "See you tomorrow, Miyu."

"Goodbye, Mayl," Miyu said as the girl exited and started to walk through the convoluted streets known as Den Area. Watching the girl leave, the blue haired woman sighed, "Three years and still nothing's changed."

"The girl needs a boyfriend," Skullman said as Miyu herself grabbed her PET from the counter and started to lock up her shop.

"Maybe. But perhaps, the first hole needs to be filled before even that would work. She needs her navi," Miyu said as she turned the key, locking the door. She gazed sadly at her employee; she was already a speck heading for the first exit that would take her back to the train station. The woman shook her head and headed in the opposite direction; her home wasn't too far away and she could bus the connection. She couldn't help but think if maybe there was anything more that could be done for her. Something that could break past her doom demeanor and actually save her from herself. Miyu sighed as she stood by the bus sign waiting for the 8:15.

If only...

* * *

Somewhere on the Beach Network, a single navi was trying to find it. One of the paths into Black Earth. Somehow, the network had branched out of the Undernet and was trying to take hold in other networks. Now they had to find these holes and destroy them. The navi looked past his blue visor; it was tough being a scout. Not only did he have to infiltrate the Officials, he also had to do his real job. At least he didn't have a NetOp. While he had nothing against the two navis he knew who had them, he only felt like a human would slow him down. After all, he had some huge ambitions to reach.

As the navi traveled through the network, he could feel his target getting closer. Yes, he would find it and destroy it. That's what he had been created to do. He was going to do it! The navi smirked as he ventured deeper into the network. Only one more turn and he would be there!

He made the round and his face fell. Before he could even try to move, a dark yellow fist smashed into him. The navi groaned as he rose back up to his feet and stared in the ugly face of Dark Gutsman. The navi smirked before looking at the dark navi with disdain.

"Wanna have a fist fight huh? Fine then! I've got your number right here! Ice Knuckle! Stun Glove! Download!" the navi said as a blue fist appeared on his right hand while a yellow glove appeared on the other. The navi charged forward and slammed Dark Gutsman's with a shocking left hook. As he raised his other hand, the mustard navi slammed his head into his opponent's causing the standard navi to stumble back.

"Grrrr…." the standard navi growled, "You're going to pay for that one you corrupted piece of data!" Dark Gutsman merely laughed and gestured for him to bring it on. Both navis raised their fists and slammed into each; the difference was that the dark soul was having to deal with his body becoming a frozen crystal while the standard navi was shaking his hand. He smirked in the end as Dark Gutsman became a crystal.

"Holy Bomb." the navi said as he threw a yellow and white mini bomb right in front of the dark soul. When it blew up, there was nothing left of it. The dark navi's data had become unstable and dissipated. The standard navi pumped his fist, he had done it! He had defeated his first dark soul. He may not have found the Dark Link yet, but he could find it after the fact. He had won! His smile would have brightened someone's day until he look down to see a yellow sword sticking out of him.

He turned his head to notice the navi of his nightmares...if he had any. The white navi sighed, "It's a shame you Dark Hunters are all the same. More of a pest than anything else. Maybe I should have had someone else deal with you that me. But then again, I would lose a source of entertainment."

The standard navi gaped,"S-s-s-l-" He didn't get much farther than that before he was deleted. She smirked for a second, glad that Dark Gutsman had at least served his purpose as a stall for her to locate the intruder. They were getting better at this. But still, all these standard navis were no where near to her level. As she left the network, she failed to see another navi who had been looking over head. His gray eyes bore down at the scene he had just witnessed. He was different than more of the other navis in the Dark Hunters group mainly because he was one of the two custom navis that were in it.

A black windbreaker covered his bodysuit which was light blue and had gray streaks that ran along the sides. The navi had a brown skin color and his navi symbol on his chest, a blue flame on a red background, had a large crack on it. He didn't have anywhere else to put it; he didn't have a helmet. Thought the lack of the head item allowed him to show off his white hair.

"So that's Slur huh?" the navi said, slightly impressed.

"Seems so," his NetOp replied; her voice about the same.

The navi smirked, "Well, then I guess I can't wait to see how her queen and king act."

"Don't get too full of yourself yet, Ghost. We still need to figure out what's making all these Dark Holes." her voice chided, though now he could hear the sarcasm behind it. He wasn't the only one itching for a fight.

"I guess. Still though, even you can't tell me you're not ready just to take one of them out," Ghost replied. He had felt bad about not jumping into the fight to prevent Slur from destroying another of his allies. But then again, he wasn't even supposed to be here. His NetOp and him had decided to see their enemy for themselves and would hate to make the old man think he couldn't trust them. He already kept them on a tight enough leash as it was already.

"...Jack out, Ghost." his NetOp said, a little sharply.

"Fine, fine. Didn't mean to push any buttons." Ghost apologized as he jacked out of the network and returned back into his red and blue PET. His NetOp calmly tucked the device back into its holder and walked out of the telephone booth she had used to jack into the network. Now she just needed to return back to her post before anyone realized she had gone.

'_Yep. Just another day as a Dark Hunter. Dodging both the authorities we deceive and the authorities we work for. But then again, that's probably why I'm her navi.' _Ghost thought as he closed his eyes. Hopefully this time, things wouldn't go as down south as they did last time. But he had a sinking feeling that it would eventually just go to hell.

* * *

The award for names for Slur's attacks and help with Dark Roll's name go to BalanceM88. Ghost's appearance design help from terratasha! Thanks again!

Update: Friday

Also yes, am I changing Roll's and Mega's appearance. Yep. I'm not increasing their heights by too much since they still need to fit in the navi world, but the more I increase the relationship the more awkward it is for me to keep on writing them in their MMBN bodies. So yeah, expect their appearance to age normally whenever I time skip (yes, to get this out of the way expect the same body changes in DN. But I have a different way of inducing that.) So yeah, idea/kick off down this road thanks go to True-inTha-Blue and terratasha.

Oh and by the way, if you read over Protoman's monologue you may catch something. A little tiny detail may have been forgotten due to all the chaos and frightening things that happened and the fact that Colonel wasn't there when it was said. But it's actually important...

Ghost501 logging out!

**Edit 6/21/14: Addition of some of Mayl's Ep4 insertion. Removal of Eps 2 ending and whatever I said in the first paragraph at the end. **


	3. Episode 3

**Review Responses:**

**True-inTha-Blue: **It's okay. Just somehow turn yourself into Dark Hub and Reina is no problem. XD Anypanel, today we get to see just what happened to Mayl and Lan after Dark Hub left with Roll during the "Pilot" episode.

**AKB0048ACCHAN62: **Nobody likes the shoehorn vampire. Well...except...nope, no one likes him. And yeah, I respond to every comment (though I almost missed your this time because I just saw it about 30 minutes before I posted this eps).

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest:** July 26

* * *

Ghost: So from the poll results, I'm guessing that you guys really like the DN Series. Makes sense since that has the most of any category of what I've written. Good to know. I've got no current plans after DN is over, but who knows. DN probably won't finish until next year so I've got time to think of more ideas. Also, I'm probably going to mark the Game Ark as complete for now. I've think I've got all of them that I've wanted to write on and I really haven't had an urge to write anymore for that ark. If you have an idea, PM or leave a review but for now I think 6 stories in BN3,5, and 6 is fine.

* * *

**Episode 3: Empty Heart, Empty Home**

Mayl sighed as she walked onto the train heading for ACDC Town and took her seat. At least it was the same; something she could at least predict. As she gazed over to another seat, she noticed a small brown haired girl talking quickly to her PET. The redhead couldn't follow the conversation, but she could see the smile on the little one's face. Funny, it reminded her of the one she wore when she talked to…

Mayl shook her head. No, she couldn't think about it. She wasn't going to lose it. Not here or anywhere else. She felt her nails press into her palm as she tried to focus about anything other than them. It was bad enough she had to see one of her problems on a daily basis or at least be in the same presence. It wasn't so much that she hated him but more like his problems only made hers more real and unbearable.

The red haired teen tried to clear her mind and think more about her work. She hadn't finished documenting some of the new vases today. She was pretty sure that their origins came from Netfrica, but she would need to look at a couple more books before she could conclude that. After a few minutes of going over her schedule for tomorrow, she soon forgot about the pink and blue elephants that resided in her head.

"Mayl!" a voice said, as the train came to a stop. Oh right, there wasn't a direct train from Den Area to ACDC. It would stop to let off and pick up passengers in Elec Town before it would get to her final destination. The girl turned her head to see none other than her middle school teacher, Ms. Mari. The woman had always tried to keep in touch with her students after middle school and, in truth, she was the only reason Mayl had graduated. She had been the one that started the chain of events that helped to "stabilize" her.

"Hey Ms. Mari," the red haired girl said in a small voice, "How have you been?"

"Pretty well. I have another graduating class coming up soon in about a year. It's still hard to believe that four years ago that you all graduate from my class. And now, you've all graduated out of high school as well. I could have never been more proud," the brunette teacher cleared her throat, "How's Lan?"

Mayl's brown eyes quickly flashed; she needed to block out the blue one before it began to trumpet, "He's fine." She answered quickly, trying not to think about the almost lifeless boy. Trying not to think about the fact he was probably still on his bed ignoring every damn thing including herself. Or better yet, he would be mulling over design documents that even he himself didn't understand and probably would never without more schooling and the lack of the stress he was putting on himself.

Ms. Mari looked at the small teenager. Sure, she had grown to a height of probably 5"8', but she still looked just about as fragile as she did when she was just a little girl in her fifth and sixth grade class. Even now, she could see Mayl bite her lip. She didn't pretend to know what in fact went through the red haired teen's head anymore. No one but her really knew after she had lost them. For a second, she was nervous that Mayl may lose it, but she released her lip at the last second, taking back her control.

"How's your new class?" Mayl asked, trying to change the subject away from anything having to do with her life.

"They're good. I've got a small group of trouble makers, but there's always a couple," she said flashing her a soft smile. She still remembered when Lan came back from the Gospel base and how he and Mayl had gotten into an argument shortly after class had ended. Apparently, she, Dex, and Yai had gone to Kotobuki before him to see if they could help any. Even then, it was clear to see that the two children cared a lot about the other as Ms. Mari remembered Yai ending the conversation by telling the arguing preteens that the event was over and done with and the two just needed to get a room. Yes, those were much happier and even less complicated days, "Still working for Miyu?"

"Yeah, I don't start college until the fall and she's letting me work there just to get a little more money before I leave," Mayl said. Well at least it wasn't the subject of those two.

"You're leaving for college then?" Ms. Mari questioned. As far as she knew, Mayl had never really expressed any kind of notion of trying to leave ACDC Town. But then again, maybe she needed to. Just to catch herself.

"Yeah, I'm going to a school in Cyber City," Mayl explained. She looked away from the school teacher for a moment. Yeah, getting away from this place for a while would be good for her. But she couldn't help but feel sad at the fact that even by getting away, she still would never really escape him. Then again, how do you escape the presence of a world savior who had traveled many parts of the world?

"Cyber City's quite the trip away from ACDC. You're okay with that?"

"Yeah, I just...I just need to go...away," the girl started strong but soon collapsed into a whisper. Thinking of her inability to leave was causing them to wake up from their short stupor. The more this conversation was continuing, the louder they were. The more they reminded her of the two holes that caused her heart to not only bleed, but to break entirely. The train seemed to jerk as it came to a stop. Mayl jumped up from her seat, "Sorry Ms. Mari, but I've got to run. I just remembered that I need to do something at home. See you later!" she said quickly as she ran out of the train.

'_She's worse than ever,'_ Ms Mari thought sadly as she say her old student raced for the gates, trying to get back home. She had always felt conflicted after turning in Mayl, but she had no choice.

Everyone, for the most part, knew that Mayl lived mostly alone. Not by any fault of hers, her father was a busy man. He had dedicated himself to work in order to make ends meet. His wife had died in a car accident along with two others. According to the police report, she had accidentally rear-ended someone just enough to get them both killed. It was assumed that Mrs. Sakurai must have taken her eyes off the road for a split second. Probably due to the toddler in the back crying her little lungs out. Somehow, little Mayl had survived and her father was now left to pay off the car insurance company and it didn't help that his wife was guilty of the crash.

Ms. Mari sighed as she too left the train. She had had her sister, Yuri, ask Miyu to give her a job about three years ago. since her sister was a frequent visitor. Just to give her something to do and to organize her life. Unfortunately, it seemed to only just barely work. Sure was it keeping her sane, yes. But was it allowing her to recover at all...

* * *

"At least...that's...over," Protoman breathed as his dark soul began to fade into oblivion.

It had taken two Program Advances and several well placed attacks to bring that thing down, "At what's worse is that we've lost the code. It seems like that navi's wire damaged it after the sword broken." Chuad said disappointed.

"Sorry Chuad," Protoman said, slightly hanging his head.

"Don't. We couldn't have expected that kind of attack from this dead zone of a place. But, this area is beginning to interest me."

"You think that navi is the one pulling the strings?"

Chuad nodded, "Perhaps. She did seem like she had quite the number of things to deal with in this network. But maybe we should go in to check. If she is the boss, then she should be busy for a couple moments."

"A quick reconnaissance then," Protoman agreed.

"I'm sending over a couple more chips, just in case if we run into any small problems along the way," Chuad said.

"Roger that, entering the link space now." Protoman confirmed as he walked onto the link.

Upon entry, a sharp noise echoed in Protoman's ears. When he landed in the new network, he realized something important. Chuad had been disconnected. Before he could turn back, the link went dead.

"My, my. Who do we have here? When Slur said there was an unwanted miscreant at the door, I didn't know it'd be you," the female voice said. Protoman activated his Hero Sword, ready for fight, "You'd raise a sword against me? Oh Protoman, you're such a...hmm...I would say jerk. But…." Electricity ran through him as a whip wrapped around the blade, not only deactivating his blade but wiping his current board of chips. Wait, destroying all his chips? He only knew of one navi with that ability.

He looked behind him to see a dark purple navi. It was clear from the whip in her hands that she had been the attacker. It was at that moment that Protoman realized that Roll could wear a sick sadistic smile oh so creepily well, "The only jerk in the area is probably Dark Gutsman. I don't know why Hub won't let me delete some of the more worthless help around her. But that's his choice."

"Roll...is that you? What happened to you?" Protoman said, as he recovered from her first attack. She had changed over the years and not just in the sense that she now was a dark soul. She actually looked more like a human teen, maybe somewhere eighteen. And her antennae even looked sharper than normal, almost like they could now slice instead of hit. She also seemed as if she had jumped up to at least 5'1", which was pretty tall for a navi.

"It's not Roll anymore. Reina will do fine however," Dark Reina said as the whip morphed with her hand into a Dark Electric Sword. Her purple-red eyes confirmed all the fun she was getting out of this, "So Protoman, now that you're here. I'm afraid I can give you two options. Deletion or Conversion. Which one do you want?"

* * *

Mayl wasn't sure when she started crying, but she was sure that she hadn't stopped running ever since leaving the train station. She felt so stupid. She had left them back in her room in Lan's house. She could feel the full force of the attack as she was ibky a couple of feet away from the house. Of all times for her to get a panic attack. She tried to get herself to stop running and to take a deep breath, but her brain was no longer working right. The girl almost slammed herself into the door as she fumbled her key out. For the most part, she wasn't really reliant on them except of the case of extreme attacks; but Ms. Mari had opened up too many holes in her weak armor.

Mrs. Hikari widened her eyes as a red blur jumped through the door and yanked open another. Mayl fell on her dresser as she stumbled into her room. She felt like she was going to pass out. It was had been a short five minute run from the house to the station, but it felt like an eternity to the girl. it didn't help that her attack came in full effect as she was trying to break open the door. She yanked opened the small container on the tabletop and popped an antidepressant. She hated taking meds. They only just reminded her about everything screwed up in her life.

About four years ago, Mayl had started having sporadic panic attacks. It was normally a trigger related to Roll or Lan, but they would also happen whenever she would become extremely stressed out. Normally, she could contain the attacks, but every now and again she needed the stupid pills to keep her attacks down. She grabbed a paper bag from the inside of the drawer and started breathing into it. Trying to regulate the breaths she was taking.

Damn it.

Mrs. Hikari knocked on the opened door. Ever since Mayl had moved in, the red hair girl had seemed more like her own daughter than ever. Despite the lights being off, she could see Mayl's scared eyes from the doorway. She didn't bother asking if she was okay. There was no need to insult her intelligence. The mother walked into the room and sat on the bed, unsure if Mayl had regained herself or not. After about a few minutes, the girl dropped the bag, "I'm fine."

"You sure, sweetie?" Ms. Hikari said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, just too many memories. I'll be fine. I just need a couple of minutes."

"Okay, dinner will be ready soon alright?"

"Thanks Mrs. Hikari." Haruka merely smiled. She had tried so many times to get the child to stop calling her that, but she just couldn't get out of that polite little habit of hers. As the brunette left, Mayl leaned her head back on the drawer. These attacks were the whole reason she lived here now. Perhaps they were also her saving grace since she probably would have gone insane in the lonely house of hers.

Four years ago, Ms. Mari had made a quick stop in by Mayl's. Apparently, she had gotten a call from their high school teacher asking if she had had any problems with Lan Hikari. At first, she thought he was regarding his lateness and sleeping in class. But instead, he was referring to Lan's complete and flagrant disregard to anything. The boy much rather preferred day dreaming and, in rare cases, mouthing off to his teachers. She knew that Lan had taken the disappearance of his Net Navi, Megaman, hard but hadn't known just how bad the damage was. For a while, he seemed to be in some kind of state of denial. That he would just wake up and realize Megaman was still in the PET and that they had to go and stop Regal. But after he started to realize that what happened was real, he began his dangerous journey down a path of hope. A hope that they would find him.

Lan hadn't been the only one affected by Megaman's disappearance. The whole Hikari family seemed to be in a fog for a while. Due to this, the high school teacher had sought out his next source of knowledge in Ms. Mari. She hadn't known of Lan's recent turn and so she went to the one person who might know. The teacher had come by to see if Mayl knew anything, after all she was the closest friend Lan had. After the first knock, she could've sworn that she heard something, followed by a thud. When she pressed her head to the door, she had heard some loud gasping. So, she had done the responsible thing and broken the window by the door, unlocked the door, and rushed in to help her old student.

Mayl had been sprawled out on the floor of the kitchen not breathing correctly and on the verge of passing out. After getting her to the hospital in the nick of time, Mayl explained that she had gotten two emails right before she passed out. One, was a forwarded email from Lan staying that the officials had given up on trying to find their navis, assuming that they were deleted. The other was an email stating that her father had passed the night before. Her whole world had collapsed from underneath her.

For as long as she could remember, Mayl had always remembered seeing her dad come in and out. Never staying for longer than a week really. Sometimes, she merely forgot that she had a dad. However, he made a permanent change in her life that caused her to remember him forever and still have a place in her heart for him. When she got a program in the mail, she had been confused. It wasn't until it downloaded that she realized that her father had given her her first ever Net Navi.

* * *

_It wasn't every day that Roll would wake up to someone staring at her with wide eyes. And to by honest, it was more than a little creepy, even if it was the eyes of a small child._

"_WAAHHH!" The pink navi yelled as she fell backwards on her butt, "Ow…" She was going to get her creator for putting this tail on her. Didn't she have any idea how much that thing hurt when she fell on it? Opening her eyes, the navi got back up and looked back at the small window that had opened up in front of her._

"_Whoa…" the little girl gaped. _

_Roll giggled at the child's amazement, "Hi! Who are you?"_

"_Wow! You can talk too!" the red head said excitedly. A wide smile was plastered on her face, "So, who are you?"_

"_Hey no fair! I asked first!" Roll answered back jokingly._

"_Oh yeah! I'm Mayl!"_

"_Well, it's nice to meet you Mayl. I'm Roll, your new Net Navi."_

_The girl tilted her head, _"_Net Navi?"_

_Roll could feel a nervous sweat coming, "Youuu have no idea what a Net Navi is do you?" She said. Now that she got a good look at her, the girl couldn't have possibly been much older than five. Weren't most Net Navis given when they were about six or seven? What was she doing here?_

"_Nope. Oh, but you have to read this!" She said as an email popped up right in front of Roll, slightly jarring her. After the program had installed Roll, a note told Mayl to let Roll see the message inscribed onto it. The pink navi skimmed it quickly, beginning to understand the situation._

"_Your dad's not around much is he?" Roll spoke sadly after finishing._

"_No, he's always at work…" Mayl sighed; she missed her dad._

"_Well, it'll be okay. We'll just have to have fun for him," Mayl looked back up at the navi with surprised eyes, "Tell you what. I'll be your friend if you be mine. Deal?"_

_Mayl's broke broke into a wide smile, "Deal! We'll be friends forever!"_

"_Yep! Promise!"_

* * *

After the attack, Mayl was pretty much adopted by the Hikaris. She still kept her last name and she wasn't really "part" of the family in the sense that she was Lan's sister. She just more or less lived there. Luckily, her father had paid off the mortage on in and so a cleaner just went in to at least keep the house in a well kept manner. It was intended for Mayl to move back completely to her house once she finally caught herself; but as more time passed, the farther that moment seemed to be. Other than that, the relationship between the family and the girl had stayed pretty much the same. Although she had gotten closer to Mrs. Hikari. However, there was one part of this agreement that Mayl hated.

Her room was across the hall from the broken boy's room. She didn't even know if she loved him anymore. She didn't even know what love was anymore. All she knew was brokenness and insanity. She learned to just live, just like she had learned to take care of herself after she realized that her father wasn't going to be there for her a lot. She had tried to perfect the art of acting. To appear fixed; but it took so little to break her mask.

She had watched over the years as her best friend-her crush-deteriorate in front of her eyes. Her best friend had been stolen from her and now no one was looking for her. Lan was going crazy, even to the point when the security guards at SciLab literally had to prevent him from going into the building. Her father was dead. It had just been too much at one time; she had cracked and never been fixed.

Any memory of Roll or Lan almost always triggered an attack. Sometimes, she was luck enough to keep it at bay, but most times it would be a horrible experience unless she took the meds. She hated the stupid pills because it reminded her that she could never learn how to fix herself. That she would never become whole ever again because everything was such a damn mess.

Mayl slowly got up from her place on the ground and began to walk towards the living room. Only the Hikaris and Ms. Mari had seen her at her worst. But there were only two who could ever bring her out of her own pits, Lan and Roll. Lan, with his upbeat character, never failed to always give her a reason to continue hoping. And Roll…

That little navi had given her more reasons to live than almost anyone else on the planet. Every time there was something off, Roll would address it. She had been with her whenever she was upset about her father being around and the loneliness it caused her. She had talked with her every time it came down to her problems accepting and acting on her feelings towards Lan. Whenever she needed help, Roll was always there for her. She was her cyber sister, and the best one at that. Without her...everything else just seemed to fall short.

Mayl sighed as she heard someone knock on the door. Who came to this house so late?

* * *

Ghost: My, my. So Roll's gone nuts, Mayl's gone coo-koo, and Lan's just WAAAYYY off the deep end. Have to say, writing this story is kinda fun! But now, I think we can finally put aside some backstory elements for a while and move onto future events. Like I don't know. Let's check out the Dark Hunter himself again in the next episode! Anyway, you all may be noticing that the language is a little more rugged and suggestive in places than normal. In truth, I originally planned for this story to be an M. I eventually reigned my idea into a T but the language still remains there. It's not enough to jump ratings especially since you'll hear most of this stuff in a high school anyway.

Update: Friday

**Edit 6/21/14: Swapped around a few scenes from the old Eps 4 and Eps 2 and then placed them here.**


	4. Episode 4

**Favoriters/Followers: **MegaD, True-inTha-Blue

**Review Responses:**

**ShadowDusk94:** **(Ch2) **I don't take it too much to heart. People are busy and may not have a chance to leave a review, though some people do PM about stories which I'm totally fine with. Plus you know how long it took for DN1 to get its first review? I went in like 5 chps before the first review was left. Sometimes it's just that the intro stuff needs to get out of the way and (when I say this I'm not trying to be arrogant) people, if they have been reading my stories for a while, know they don't need to leave me a bunch of reviews to get me to finish a story because all my stories are done before I upload them. So there's that too. Anypanel, yeah I was trying to go for a mix in terms of creating Reina. I actually like Empress Roll's fighting style and after seeing it I can't really think of a true Dark Roll as anything but. XD ACDC had a dark cloud over it for a while and we'll see how Mayl and Lan "recovered". Though I will saw she didn't...something else happened. Yeah, finally went with the self insertion bit. Only took about 29 (this being the 30th) MMBN stories for that to happen. Yeah, Ghost is one of two custom Dark Hunter navis, so he's got a decent amount of the story with him. And thanks! ...Holy panel that was a long response...

**ShadowDusk94:** **(Ch1) **That's no problem and Happy Early Birthday from me! Khehehe...no one but me and Gav know about that Merge and its abilities. Well...let's just wait until this latest contest is over. Then I'll release the details (think I've got it planned now).

**AKB0048ACCHAN62: **Yeah, I actually like the anime's portrayal of a Dark Roll better than the game, although I'm not completely sold on the design (even though that was mostly cause Zap was controlling her). Anyway, attack style I feels works very well so I refer to Empress's attack style a lot when I do a Dark Roll fic. Thanks again for the compliment! I update once a week for two reasons. 1) Cause this is like a TV Show type style and the first time I'm writing a story this way so it's like when the new episode comes in every week. 2) To give time for DN3.5 to be written. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take and so I made Disconnect to help cover some time.

**guest:** Thanks! Like I told Dusk, I know people are busy and don't always have time to drop a review; so I don't take it too personally. I'm honestly just happy I get reviews! I've seen stories that go several chapters without a single review. So, I'll take what I can get. Plus, people do PM me about the story. Anypanel, thanks for reviewing and for the support!

**True-inTha-Blue:** Yep! Also, just as a side note, you were probably one of the first MMBN authors I read on this site, Gavzilla and GuardianNature2012 being the other two that I remember off the top of my head. So yeah, your influence is pretty strong! XD

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest:** July 26th midnight

* * *

Oh, and quick question? Anyone using the forum I created? Or should I just take it down? forum/Transcode-Ideas-Execute/149269/ Finally, anyone got an idea for cover art for this story? I kinda want to replace all my MM stories (besides DN) cover arts but I'm not sure just what quite to make. Please give simply designs! I can't draw!

* * *

**Episode 4: Conversion of the Queen**

Protoman stepped back, switching over to his default sword. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all! Unfortunately, pulling his sword had sent the wrong (or right?) message to the dark soul. Reina laughed with joy, "Oh! Just the one I was hoping you to pick. The viruses around here really stop being fun after the first couple fights."

"Roll. Think about what you're doing. You're not you!" Protoman said he raised his sword only to have it shattered by the raw force Reina had come down with. He could feel the electricity in the air as the sword finished its motion. Geez, where did all this power come from?

"Oh Protoman, such a naive soul. This is me. Just like my Hub is Hub. Darkness runs together with light. There is no separating the two. The sweet Roll you knew had to have one too!" She said, delivering a punch straight into Protoman's gut. The navi staggered only to be right crossed by Reina's foot.

Reina raised her sword and it turned into her trademark bow. The arrow crackled with electricity, "Shame. I was really hoping for something more. Does no one know how to show a girl a good time anymore?"

"Lady Reina!" a voice said distracting the dark soul from firing. Protoman took the distraction to make a beeline back for the exit, momentarily forgetting that the path out was gone. He didn't get too far before, "Warp Wires." The wires from before came around him and slammed themselves onto his frame, causing him to trip and drop to the ground. They were same ones from earlier!

"Slur!" Reina turned behind her to see her personal guard walking behind her, "What's wrong?" The purple navi asked, though a tiny bit of frustration was in her voice. It wasn't like it was everyday someone would just wander in here and she could beat the crap out of them. Over the few years of knowing each other, the navis had become "close" if you could even call it that. It was more of a respect thing. They didn't hate each other like most dark souls did; but they didn't really like each other either.

"Perhaps we should keep him alive. The king has been looking for new recruits. Perhaps this will be the one he needs to start his plans," Slur reported. She had barely gotten back in time. She had to admit, the Dark Queen could be rather bloodthirsty when she wanted to be. Then again, it was probably the pent up aggression talking. Ever since her dark soul had taken over, she had never really been able to complete her goal and soon anger turned into...well this.

Reina sighed. Just when she was beginning to get the tiniest kick out of this. But if she thought about it, the fight really hadn't been going well for Protoman at all, "Fine. Take him." She said as her bow turned back into her hand. The navi turned around and started to walk back into the inner layers of Black Earth.

Protoman merely stared at the retreating form as Slur picked up him up by the wire, "Remember this well after your conversion. If you don't fear the king, then be very afraid of her. The queen is the one to not double cross. Both possess much power. He practices restraint, she practices death."

And with that, Protoman was carried away without another word.

* * *

The farther back into Black Earth one got, the harder it was to see. Most of the light in this place came from the various centers of the network that had reconnected to the Net. So far, they had only been able to access parts with back doors that had been left open by a peace drunk society. Reina looked up at the dark sky; even after six years this dark barrier still stood. It was mostly the reason for the gloomy atmosphere. However, it was reaching its capacity. As more links were established, the new resources from the new Net were draining this place of the power needed to keep them in there. Probably a few more days before it would break.

She stepped on another link that sent her deeper into the Black Earth network. Turns out that the network itself was much more expansive than anyone could have ever imagined. It was actually a six layered area; becoming more treacherous after each one. Most of the viruses and navis who lived down here knew better than to try and jump her. If she didn't delete them, Hub would in less than a heartbeat.

Then again, there weren't too many navis who would cause a fight with her anyway. Many of them weren't insane enough too and besides most of the navis wanted the same thing she and Hub did: the complete suffocation of the Net. Rather than destroying the only people who can upkeep their plane of existence, they merely wanted to show them who was more powerful. Well...most of them just wanted chaos and destruction by some means. Since it was included in his plans, the other dark navis just sort of went with it.

Reina rolled her eyes as she noticed someone reforming out of the shadows. Dark Gutsman, the stupid navi could barely keep himself alive for more than a day. She had to wonder whether or not the Dark Hunters got tired of killing him only to see him come back again. Then again, she also wondered why he wasn't dead. Some of the dark navis had never reformed after a suspected run in with a Dark Hunter. But no one was too sure due to the fact that the Dark Hunters were not competent enough to permanently delete them. Or so they hoped.

Reina shook her head and continued to Black Earth 6. On some level, she was jealous of the other dark navis. At least they got to go outside and have fun. She was always kept in her to wait until the reports came back. Even Slur got to see more of the cyber world than she did. Reina sighed. All she wanted was to do go outside, delete a couple of navis, and come back. Was that so much to ask for? Reina walked up to a purple gate and entered in a code. Only Slur, Hub, Drusk, and her knew it. The gate disappeared and Reina walked onto the link that warped her to Black Earth 6.

Black Earth 6 was different than the other parts of the network. Unlike the others, this area had no clear walkway. Someone would just simply have to know the way. One misstep and it was hello deletion. At least, that's what they assumed. So far, no one had fallen. As she walked, she noticed Hub looking at some data files he must have gotten from some junk stream. Since they were so far down, there was a lot of junk data that could easily be grabbed by them. Also, it helped that they had some navis like Shadowman and Searchman who went and actually grabbed physical data to supplement the junk. Most of it was scrap but they occasionally got some interesting files. Just like the ones Hub was looking at right now.

The navi had been talking about some new SciLab project that was causing a commotion. Reina never really paid that much attention to it. She walked up behind her husband and hugged him. He was taller now than he was six years ago, about 5'5" now and now looked more like an eighteen year old. Somehow even after squashing her existence, some of Roll's kinder tendencies still expressed themselves. Though, no one other than Hub ever saw it. Somehow, Reina had never been able to get rid of some of these habits, but perhaps that was because how Roll felt about Megaman was the same with how she felt about Hub.

"Hello to you too!" the dark navi chuckled as he scanned through another set of files. Reina huffed softly before walking around and grabbing the file, putting it behind her back. The purple navi smirked, knowing that she wasn't going to giving up the file he wanted so easily, "Playing around? Your lighter half is showing tonight Reina." He said, looking at her with red eyes.

"Oh and yours doesn't?" Reina said through half lidded eyes.

"Not…" he started pulling her in close, "normally." There was always a small shiver that ran through her every time she looked into Hub's crimson eyes. Worst part? She actually liked it. It was never terror, but something else. She couldn't really put her finger on it; she just new that she loved the feeling that looking into his eyes caused her feel, "You look a bit happier than normally today. What happened?"

Reina sighed. He could always tell when something with her had changed. She enjoyed the attention, but sometimes she at least wished she could keep the surprise from him, "I got into a fight today."

"Did you?" Hub raised an eyebrow. As far as he was aware of, Reina had grown tired of fighting the viruses around Black Earth and the other dark navis since she had beaten them several times already. So for her to be getting into fights would mean that she had found a way to break past the lock coding that was embedded into both of them. It wasn't hard to imagine that someone like Reina would easily get cabin fever. The poor navi loved to be outside and free; of course, now that she was a dark soul she wanted to go out and destroy but it was still same difference.

"Yep. Protoman managed to find himself in our network. Slur managed to convince me to keep him alive. He should be getting converted now," Reina said. Hub had a happy smirk on his face, which was enough for Reina to break out her rare smile.

"We've got to do something about that aggression of yours," he said, already making plans to go and oversee Protoman's conversion. It wasn't so much that Protoman was here that was causing Hub to become excited, but rather it was learning that the means to kick off his plans had managed to plop right in front of him.

"But I thought you loved that about me," Reina pouted; her purple-red eyes shining just a bit.

"At _certain_ times," he smiled coyly before kissing her. Caught off guard, Reina made a small noise but soon enough melted into it. They stayed like that for about a minute before Hub broke the kiss, "And on that note, I'll be going to oversee Protoman's conversion. Oh, did you ever finish that chip?"

Reina opened her palm and a battlechip soon materialized from the data, "It was actually kinda easy to corrupt it." She said, giving Hub the changed V-doll chip.

"That's what I was hoping for. With Protoman, we'll be able to start sooner than I thought," he said, holding the chip carefully in his hand and walked towards the link towards the exit, "I'll see you later tonight."

"Yep," she said softly as she watched the navi leave. After he was gone, her expression went serious. She knew she had seen something in the shadows a second ago, "Having fun over there Drusk?" she said sourly as she turned to see the royal guard of her husband standing as still as the dead.

"I wasn't watching if that was what you're asking," he gagged as he moved into "better" vision; that was a sickening idea. He didn't know how those two were in charge of the place while still having these lovey-dovey feelings around. It confused and disgusted him. The navi was surrounded by shadows and his whole face was completely covered by darkness. She assumed that helmet of his was just as dark as his programming. He almost reminded her of some kind of dark samurai. The shadows danced off of him like a cape in the wind. Overall though, the navi often creeped her out. Why? Because she knew just what kind of mind the dark navi possessed. While she was slightly (at times) aggressive, Drusk was crazy. Often most navis that went against him that lived were too afraid to set foot in the Net ever again...if they weren't deleted that was.

Reina glared at him, "So what's going on? We all know you rather abuse some navi than hang around here, despite being Hub's guard. So what are you doing here?" she asked coldly.

"One, the king needs no one to guard him. Not when he could destroy this net area if he wanted to. Plus, he has you as his loyal berserk hound. Second, there is no such thing as abusing what is not perfect. Third, can't I just come home for a minute?"

"Like this is one to you," Reina said as the navi walked closer to her, the insult hadn't gotten past her. Her hand went behind her back as her whip materialized. She hated his intimidating aura. More so, she despised the fact the nothing scared him. He was put in his place by Hub, but Drusk knew no such thing as fear. He found himself incapable of it as a perfect dark navi. And what was worse was that he had _tried_ in the beginning to impress her, that was before she almost threw up her data and Hub had almost broiled him in rage. He had developed a hatred of her ever since.

"Calm it blondie. Besides, I don't have any battle chips. Hitting me with that whip isn't going to do anything but start an unneeded fight. If I wanted to delete someone, I would have done it already," the navi shook his head, "Now, do you want to know about the insurrectionist at your front gate or would you rather stand there and have this pointless conversation with me?"

"And why haven't you taken care of it," Reina asked through gritted teeth.

"Because I'd rather not have to deal with your prattle when you found out it was Shademan."

Reina's hand tightened around her whip as the room stilled. Her jaw clenched as the navi's words sunk in, "And you're sure?"

"Would I be telling you if I wasn't?"

The purple navi turned around and proceeded to walk to the link, "Good work."

"Don't thank me. I've got zenny with someone that you'll go insane and lose."

Reina sneered as she headed for the link, "On second thought, shove it."

* * *

"_Leave me alone! Please!" a pink navi screamed as she tried to get away from her assailant. Her internal programming told her that she had been here for six months. Her helmet was cracked; her other antennae were gone; she was battered and beaten by the constant barrage of viruses in this network. She had been forgotten and left for dead by Dark Hub. Shortly after they were locked in, the navi had left and she had lost track of him. She had heard rumors of him beginning to take over several sections of the network but hadn't actually seen anything for herself._

_Then again, when you're being chased by something that wants nothing but your destruction, you don't have a lot of free time to check up on rumors. Roll fell to the ground as exhaustion forced her legs to stop. She hadn't shut down for her whole duration her. She was amazed that she was still functioning right. She crawled over to a secluded part of the network in hope that she would once again lose the figure that was following her._

_Roll held her breath as she heard someone walking around and released it once the navi had left. She stuffed her face into her hands as soft sobs left her. She had never been this drained before. She had no one. Mayl was gone. Hub was gone. She wanted herself dead! Or at least her dark soul did. It had gotten some kind of fixation with her over the past couple of months. Roll had to wonder if it had to do with the two of them being in the same network and the dark soul just had a superiority complex. The pink navi looked behind her to see nothing but the pitch black. She had a feeling it was because she had barely rested over the past six months but she was seriously beginning to wonder why not just submit. After all, it wasn't like she couldn't feel herself beginning to lose it. It wasn't like being lost in the dark without hope and barely hanging on to survival didn't change someone! Roll tried to take a breath; trying not to stress herself out to much. Her logic program was too close to failing her._

"_Weellll," an eerie voice said, "Look who we have here. Whheee."_

_Roll's green eyes grew large as she recognized the voice. She had never forgotten it. Flying through the air until she was dumped in that tower network. Then chased around the small platform until her only options was wait for Mega or jump. And Mega wasn't here anymore to help her. She remembered the creepy feeling that had surrounded her when she, Gylde, and Gutsman fought him. He had tried to bite her again, but Gutsman and Gylde were stronger than before and together they had managed to beat him. But now...she was all alone. A clawed hand put a hand on her as she jumped away. _

_Shademan._

"_Still as delicious as I remember. Though much more jumpy. Whee," the vampire navi sighed. His hunger had ravished him for months. It wasn't easy coming back from the brink of deletion so many times. Though he had to thank his program for the UnderHeal Program he had installed into him. However, lucky for him, this pink morsel kept on finding her way back to him. Maybe she had some kind of desire to be drained of her data, "Now. Are you going to go down quietly my little dessert. Or…" he opened out his wings, "Am I going to have to make you accept your fate?"_

_Roll backed up as she tried to turn her hand into her bow. She bit her lip as pain ran through her body. As her hand returned back to normal, she felt like it had been jabbed with a ton of needles. Why couldn't her hand transform anymore? Oh yeah, the dark soul had damaged her hand in a confrontation last month. Now all of her battle functions were broken; at least all her useful ones._

"_Hmm, a crumbled cookie. Whee. Well, I'll just have to eat as much as I can before it completely falls apart. And with your precious friends out of the picture, there really is no one who can save you," he said as Roll backed up to the edge of the network. The pink navi looked with frightful eyes to the never ending darkness. The sudden sense of deja vu hit her. Maybe it would be so bad if she lost her footing. At least she'd be away from here. She would fall and fall until she either fell forever or found the end to her nightmare._

"_Back against the wall and no where else to go. I must ask, how does it feel to be so helpless? To know that you can't do anything even if you wanted to. That you're one ray of light in this world is gone. To think, the incorruptible Megaman now becoming the biggest Dark Power navi in all of time. Well, it won't matter once I get enough Dark Chips. I'll take back this throne soon enough," Roll choked as Shademan picked her up by her throat, "But you won't be around to see it when I take over. You'll be a husk of a shell just lying around for a virus to clean up. But don't worry about your little friend, I'll make sure he has a very painful deletion. Much like the couple he's given me. WHHEEE!"_

_Roll wasn't sure what made her snap first. The threat against Megaman, the feeling of helplessness, the wanting to wake up from this nightmare and the reality that it was real life, or just the fading strength to hold her sanity. _

_Her logic programming broke._

_She screamed. Though the vice grip on her neck, she screamed. When Shademan tried to get her to shut up, she bit his hand. She could feel herself break down. __Her green eyes went small as s_omething inside her tried to retreat into herself. Maybe a program was trying to save as much as her data as it could from her total breakdown.

"_The hell is wrong with you!" Shademan growled. He had had enough with unexpected flavorings attached to his meal, "Fine! Then you'll suffer a similar fate to what your dear Megaman will in the future! Noise-" the navi started before he quickly turned into bats and dodged an incoming sword swipe. As he looked to see his attacker, he saw the purple version of the navi he was trying to eat. A dark soul._

_The dark soul turned to the navi as she cried on the ground. Trying to get a grip on her reality...and failing. Roll lay in a fetal position on the ground gasping for air that she didn't need as her logic function was bugging due to all the stress on her programming over the past six months. Most SciLab scientists would call her a true trooper for lasting this long. The female navi dropped to her knees and touched her lighter half's symbol. As the dark soul downloaded herself into him, Roll's failsafe triggered. When her logic system failed, a program had created an internal backup of herself before the crack._

_The pink navi stopped her noise quietly as her bodysuit began to turn purple. Her eyes were going dark, just like her System Core. She had no fight left to stop it. She let the darkness take her over. She just wanted to get away. Her program shut down as her pre-snap self was saved and locked away. The darkness ignored it and gleefully invaded the System Core. As the navi got up from the ground, she turned her head to the vampire. Her eyes blazed with anger, "You broke me."_

"_Hmm...look's like my dessert is spoiled. Until later my dear," Shademan said turning once again into a swarm of bats and retreating the second before a whip cracked where he once was, leaving an indent in ground._

_As she sneered, the dark soul turned to see an out of breathe Dark Hub behind her. She gave a sour smirk; she knew that the navi really only had eyes for her darker self which caused him to send Roll Dark Soul after her lighter self in order to get her on the same page. Some elements of his lighter half still had influence and the second he had seen Roll DS, he knew that he wanted the pink navi to go through the same transformation he did. He wouldn't kill the pink one, but he didn't want to live in a world where there were two opposite Rolls. It wouldn't work out well for anyone. Still, despite seeing him, she was not in a lovers' mood at the moment._

_Dark Hub walked closer to the navi, slowly seeing how agitated she was. When he finally managed to get closer enough to hug her, the female navi accepted the embrace, _"_I swear I'll kill him for what he did to me."_

"_It was your lighter half. It's over now," Hub said, trying to reason with her._

"_I don't care. Just because he's cheated death he thinks that he owns the right. He thinks he can just break me, steal my data, and leave me for dead. I'm no one's toy nor meal. I don't care what it takes. The last thing he sees will be me before I destroy that System Core and put him down for good."_

"_For what it's worth, sorry for leaving you on your own."_

"_Don't worry. I'll get even with you too. But your punishment is going to be much less severe."_

"_Is that code for physically less severe and emotionally more?"_

"_Glad to know we're on the same page, Hub."_

"_You're not going to be easy to get along with…"_

"_Reina. Reina . EXE. And who knows, I might be or I might not be. You'll never find out until you try."_

* * *

Shademan watched as his minions began to follow him towards a link that would take them to Elec Tower 2. He had had a tough time getting past a few of the dark navis that were patrolling, but he finally gathered enough normal dark navis to start his army. It was time to make due on his promise several years ago.

Once Netcrime had gone to zilch, he had had a hard time trying to stay under the radar of the officials. As more and more petty criminals started to disappear, it became tough to disguise his power and take the things he needed. But now, he was ready. He turned one more corner and felt his "heart" (if he had one) sink. Standing in front of him was the guard of the Dark Queen, Slur.

"Slur. Ever an unpleasant sight," he grumbled,

"The same to you Shademan. But don't fear, I'm only here to make sure that you won't run like you did last time. If you try to leave this Net Area, know that there are several navis watching this area and ready to follow you wherever you go. Wherever you go, you cannot escape your fate." the white navi spoke sincerely.

"And what is my fate?" Shademan asked before something wrapped around him and flung him across the road he had just traveled.

"Immediate deletion, bastard!" Reina said and she tugged on whip. The weapon unraveled as she flung it on the ground again. Shademan had barely dodged out of the way, "You know how long I've waited for you to show up. I've never forgotten how you tried to break me. And now, I'm going to break you over my leg."

"Roll Dark Soul. Whee. You've been the most irritating dessert I've ever had the displeasure of not eating! WHHEEE!" Shademan growled, picking himself up.

"That's not my name. It's is Reina! Dark Stage! Dark Elec Sword!" Reina growled as the ground around them glowed with an eerie purplish tint. A sword sparked on her hand as she started running forward.

"Whee. Your first attack is a rush? Not very bright are you? Noise Crush!"

Reina took the blast head on. She stumbled back a step before planting her foot on the ground and continuing her rush, "Is that the best you've got!" She growled, her rage allowing her to barely register the hit. The electricity on her blade crackled even more as she slashed him across the mouth. She bounced up, planted her feet on his chest, and spun kicked him directly in his center. As she skidded on the ground, her sword disappeared and was replaced by a dark purple holder, "Dark Boomer!" She yelled as she launched the boomerang.

"Bat Split!" the vampire navi said as he tried to avoid the attack, but he couldn't move. His battle function wasn't working! He realized the moment he was slashed again.

Reina merely laughed, "So Shademan, how does it feel knowing that you can't do anything to stop me? This is my the domain I share with Hub. More importantly, this is my dark stage. Any navi who's dumb enough to get attacked by me on this stage gets a bug. Whether your energy drops to zero, your battle function stops work, your movements become inverted, I never know. I just know one thing…," she said as her bow appeared in her hand. The arrow crackled with angry electricity, "It makes killing enemies like you a hell of a lot easier. Now, this time...stay dead."

Shademan barely had time to react before the arrow had pierced through his Navi Symbol. However, the electricity sparked through his being, hitting his Dark Core. His core wasn't in the normal spot right behind the icon, but closer in his right shoulder. However, as the sparks surged around him, he made the mistake of clutching his weak point. Reina smirked as she fired another arrow straight into his shoulder. The vampire navi screeched in pain as he began to be deleted, for good this time. Slur walked up to her as she watched Shademan's data disappearing, "I'll be taking the drained navis back to dark areas to be repaired."

"Good." Reina mumbled.

Before she left, the white navi turned to the purple navi, "I hope all of your drive was not into that one battle."

The female navi smirked, "Don't worry. I'm still me. When we're ready to start, I'll be right there with you guys. My resolve isn't gone." Reina sighed before walking past Slur. It was true, all her agression wasn't gone. But it felt so damn good to actually watch that thing die. Some of the recovering navis walked out of her way as she headed back for Black Earth 6. Maybe Hub was back from the conversion process…

* * *

As Mayl finally entered the room, she put on another smile. Another act. After all, it wasn't everyday that Eugene Chuad had come to the Hikari residence on a weekday night.

"Chuad?" Mayl asked.

"Mayl. Where's Lan?" the skunk haired boy asked. As straightforward as ever. She had never really had a conversation with the boy, but she remembered him from the N1 Grand Prix and the conversations with an irritated Lan every time he would talk about him.

"In his room probably," she said. The antidepressant would give her a little time to speak as free as her mind would let her. Still, it was painful knowing that the boy was probably half asleep in a comatose like state, dreaming of the day he could reunite with his brother, Hub Hikari.

"Thank you," he responded, walking past her.

"What's all this about?" Mrs. Hikari asked, concerned.

Chuad merely waved a hand, "Just need to ask him about a place on the Net. He's wandered enough of it to probably know of the location I believe I've found."

"I wouldn't try asking him about the Net. He's still…" Mayl started.

"What? Depressed? Insane? I already know of his file. But if this is the place I think it is, then we have have more to think about than just Lan's mental state. It may even improve it." Chuad stated.

"What do you think you've found?" Mayl asked, hoping she wasn't jumping the gun.

"Black Earth. The home of dark soul net navis."

A door creaked open as a disheveled boy stepped out. Compared to Lan, Mayl looked like an angel. Dark bags were under his eyes and his hair looked unkept. The boy had somehow graduated as well with good grades while diving into a personal project to build a Pulse Transmission machine. At least, that what he said he was trying to do, "What network did you say?"

* * *

Ghost: Phew! Man, that was a lot this episode! So yeah, anyone who wanted to know about Reina's background, there you go! And now the revenge element is gone, so maybe she'll be less aggressive…..hahahahaha, no. Reina is still Reina and what is Reina without battle aggression? Not Reina! Anyway, hopefully you guys and gals enjoyed this! So, I guess in the end what do you think of Reina?

By the way: Let's Play MMBN6 Gregar is still happening. Just that the parts are a little more infrequent: watch?v=xCRZmbujd08

Update: Friday

Funny, I'm beginning to use my Twitter account a bit more so if you want follow me at MCGhost501 if you care to keep up with me on FFN and Youtube stuff.

**Edit 6/21/14: Swapped around a few scenes from the old Eps 4 and Eps 2 and then placed them here.**


	5. Episode 5

**Review Responses:**

**True-inTha-Blue: **Cause then everything just feels more realistic ya know?

**AKB0048ACCHAN62:** I swear it's because I grew up watching it but every time I read your name, I keep on hearing Arbok from the 1990s Pokemon anime. Anypanel, well let's just take a look at what's going on shall we? Bringing some people back from the face of obscurity and back into the plot so let's see what Ghost and his NetOp are up to. Oh and thanks!

* * *

Ghost: I took someone's advice and have rearranged Eps 2 - 4. It's all the same story, it's just that each scene isn't necesarrily in the same place as it was before. So check it out because this was probably a bad explanation.

* * *

**Episode 5: Discovering the Hunt**

"You remember the plan, right?" the girl asked.

"You act like I could have possibly have forgotten it in the short space of time from when we got on the bus to now," her navi responded back, "Geez, who do ya take me for Emerald?"

"I take you for yourself and you have a habit of forgetting details," the girl smirked as she leaned against the bus rail. With the exception of two green colored bangs, her hair was a midnight black which went down to underneath to her shoulder blades. She just wore a simple purple T-shirt, some jeans, and an red armband on her left arm. She tilted her head to look at the driver who was staring blankly ahead. Then again, it was the middle of the night. She supposed she wouldn't like driving a sixteen year old anywhere at 11 o'clock at night either. Then again, it was his job.

"And you have a habit of dodging orders. So we're both delinquents. Your point is?" Emerald rolled her crimson eyes before pulling out her PET. In it was her Net Navi, and one of her closest friends, Ghost.

"Well, if I'm not dodging orders then you're not forgetting the plan," she said plainly.

"Exactly. It's a simple mission for the old man. He just wants us to check up on some things in the Undernet through the camera program in Sky Town. We're just supposed to jack in, get the footage, and get out. See, I remember the plan," Ghost spoke, slightly insulted.

"Sorry, but you know we're still under fire from that stunt we pulled earlier." Emerald said dryly. Her ears were still ringing from the chewing out she had gotten about obeying orders for her own and the world's safety.

"I still don't know how the heck he found out about that. I've swept this PET like six times and I can't find anything. It's like he's got a tracker on us or something. You sure he hasn't like bugged your clothes or something?" Ghost said, equally perturbed by the old man's ability to figure out what they were up to.

"I don't think so, but at this rate it wouldn't surprise me. It's not like we have the greatest track record of keeping or noses where it belongs."

"I guess. Hey, our stop is coming up," Ghost noted as the Sky Bus finally pulled up to a stop.

Emerald walked out of the vehicle, "Thanks for the ride. See you in a couple of minutes." The man merely nodded and rolled over to take a nap. Emerald leaned in close to her PET, "I don't think he likes us very much."

"Who does!"

She walked out of the station and took a stairwell that lead her to the bottom of the elevator which took people up to the main part of Sky Town. It took a couple of minutes for Emerald to finally get the panel off. Someone had gotten wise to the fact that it wasn't the smartest thing to leave an access panel to Sky Town on an elevator and had the thing moved. But they forgot to kill the circuit. While it was a pain in the butt to remove, they could still get in the network the old fashion way.

"Alright then!" Emerald said grabbing her PET, "Jack in, Ghost! Execute!"

* * *

When Ghost got into SkyNet Camera Area 1 from Sky Area 2, he was surprised to see the place completely darkened. He knew this was a server area, but it was never this dark the last time he had checked this place. However, it only took a few feet before he realized that he was walking right into a trap. As he stepped forward, several poles came up from the ground entrapping the navi. Electricity crackled as the totem poles became fully charged lightning rods.

"Dark Thunderbolt!" Someone yelled as the electricity struck the light blue navi. Ghost fell down to a knee as two navis appeared out of the shadows, Dark Tomahawkman and Dark Thunderman to be precise.

"So, this is one of the Dark Hunters? Have to say he doesn't look like much. Though he is a custom navi, which is different from the normal. Maybe he's the one who did in those others?" Tomahawkman commented, gripping his ax. Shadowman had mentioned something about seeing a navi around here, but decided to rather get the two navis to do the dirty work since he was still doing his duties.

"Spying on us was your greatest and last mistake! By the orders of the Dark King and Queen, you are to be deleted by us. It would be appreciated if you did not resist," Thunderman said.

"Heh..HA HA HA!" Ghost laughed as he got back up to his feet. Both dark navis grew hot with embarrassment as they heard the voice of the Hunter's NetOp also joining in.

"What's so funny! You're dead to rights! Don't you realize who you're up against? You shouldn't be laughing!" Tomahawkman yelled, his face red with anger.

"Yeah we should! The worst part is that it's so simple and the fact you don't realize it is even more priceless," Emerald said as she downloaded two battle chips. The girl composed herself as her eyes narrowed, "It's because you're funny if you think we actually give a crap about what your king and queen say. It's all junk to us. I would tell you to carry a message, but unfortunately you won't be living to tell them. Ghost! Battle Routine! Set!"

"Execute! Air Blade! Holy Blade!" a grayish blade appeared on Ghost's right hand and a yellow blade on the other, "Sorry guys, but I've really got to get that video footage. And if you're here that means you're either just the bait or the ones that have it!" Ghost raised the Air Blade and fired an air wave that knocked down a surprised Thunderman.

"Why you little! Tomahawk Swing!" the dark navi yelled, raising his weapon high.

"Wow!" Ghost said, blocking the blade from coming down on him, "I really can't believe it's this easy. You're really not that bright are ya?" The blue navi deflected the blade and sent the tomahawk flying in the air. The only other thing the navi saw was a broad streak of yellow as the blade struck him, knocking the dark navi down.

However, as the navis slowly got back up they noticed something, "Why aren't those blades disappearing! You've already used them!"

"Really, so not only are you arrogant but you also don't even try and do your homework. How pathetic are you guys? Like really? You are the only navis we fight and yet you don't know anything about us? I don't even want to explain this to you. Emerald! Let's finish this fight already!"

"I hear that! Program Finisher! Moon Blade! Program Advance! Midnight Sword!" Ghost raised his hands as both swords disappeared and a single midnight black blade appeared on his hand.

Both dark navis cowered back. This Program Advance was was actually giving off quite a bit of power. Ghost brought the blade up, pointing it at them, "Like my NetOp said. You won't be living long enough to carry a message. Sure any normal deletion would have you guys sent back into Black Earth where you'll just come back and cause more trouble, but this isn't going to be normal in the least."

Thunderman looked stunned as he begun to recognize the power the blade had. It felt similar to the Dark Power that ran through his systems. But then, how was this navi able to carry a Dark Sword?

Ghost smirked, "I see someone got it. You're right, the Moon Blade works like a Dark Sword, but it's also part Holy Blade. The Air Blade offsets the darkness. But," the blade grew darker almost as if was anticipating being used, "It makes it useful for cutting Dark Navis like you!"

"Elec Beam!"

"Eagle Tomahawk!"

Both navis yelled as they struck the area where Ghost was. Surely that had to kill him right? However, when both of them started to feel their data falling apart, they knew it wasn't. The two navis looked right in front of them to see Ghost coming up from a crouch, "Nice Area Steal, Emerald."

"Dark Hunter...you...your time is coming to an end!" Thunderman said as his data drifted off into cyber space. However, as he left he realized one thing...he wasn't coming back. The blade itself had cut his Dark Core, permanently deleting him. Unlike the other Dark Hunters, this one actually had the ability to make sure that they were never seen again. So he was the one who had killed off his comrades. Thunderman looked up at the shadows. Yes, it was nerve racking that this navi could permanently delete them, but he would get his.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only heard that a couple hundred times." he said as they disappeared, "So think they were smart enough to take the footage to their deletion?" Ghost asked as Emerald cleared his data and he put his hands into his windbreaker's pockets; he loved having this thing. Though he really wasn't much of a fan of why he had the thing to begin with.

"Maybe. Though I guess we should check to make sure right?" Emerald said, staring up at the night sky.

It felt like they should have been getting closer to him, but yet they were so far away. Then again, the only time they ran into dark souls was by chance and there were normally standard navis that forced them to leave or be nagged at by the old man. Normally, the navis won...after three of them were deleted. They weren't the best, but could work together well enough. Plus, it helped that new ones were being made and they understood their role as soldiers. Still though, it was sad to see them go sometimes. Especially since their sacrifice would be in vain since they wouldn't be powerful enough to permanently delete them like Ghost could. Unfortunately, the old man didn't have the resources to create new custom navis. He only had enough to modify two; one of the few reasons why he kept her and Ghost on such a tight leash.

"You alright? You're doing that thing again," Ghost asked as he headed for the second comp where the Mr. Program was.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Just wondering," she sighed.

"There's no way we can bring him back, partner," Ghost stated.

"I know. I just wonder sometimes you know. Just what would happen if certain events didn't play out the way they did."

"Yeah...anyway," the navi said as he reached the normal spot where the Mr. Program hung out, "It looks like we were right about one thing. Those two outside were the bait. That program seems to be gone and it already didn't like to go to too many places already. It took forever to find this spot because of how picky it was."

"The old man's not going to like this at all," Emerald sighed, already imagining his face.

"No. No, he's not," Ghost said as the PET started to beep, "Huh, we got an email." Ghost opened up a window and began scrolling through the message, "Oh great. The old man's already in a terrible mood. Apparently, one of the Dark Navis is trying to make a break in at SciLab!"

"Well, then let's-"

"He wants us to stay out of it. He actually put that sentence in bold and underlined it."

Emerald dropped her head, "What's the point in having us in this organization if we don't do anything but this menial stuff. We're the best duo in the whole place and all we do is check the video footage!"

"Well, we _could_ do the normal…" Ghost suggested as Emerald board the bus.

"True…" the raven haired girl turned to the driver, "Hey can you get us to SciLab?"

"Nope. Dr. Robinson just called. You two are supposed to go straight back to home." the driver said as he started the bus.

Emerald's mouth dropped open. "I really shouldn't be surprised...but yet I am," Ghost said dropping his head as the bus left the station and returned back to the ground.

* * *

"Hikari," Chuad started, "You look...well terrible."

"Save it. Did you or did you not just say that you found Black Earth?" Lan said, foregoing courtesy. For a second he had thought he had gone crazy when he heard Chuad's voice. But then he almost really did lose it when he had heard Black Earth. Sometime in sophomore year, he had developed this theory about Megaman's whereabouts. He had never been confirmed deleted, but with his navi data disconnected form the PET, no one could be certain. Still, Black Earth was one of the few places that Lan believed Megaman would have gone.

"I think I may have stumbled onto it. Protoman and I were looking into a weird energy signature that had popped up deep inside the Undernet. When we got there, we found a dark hole on the ground. We tried to destroy it and Protoman ended up having to fight his dark soul before being able to enter the area. After he went through the link, I lost contact with him. That was three hours ago. I was waiting to see if he was looking through the whole network, but now I'm beginning to get worried," Chuad explained.

"And you're sure you Protoman had to fight a dark soul of himself?" Lan asked.

The skunk haired teen nodded, "Positive."

Lan went quiet for a while before he laughed briefly. A smile appearing on his face for the first time in a while, "That's great! It sounds like you found Black Earth. Hub might be there. After he turned him into a dark soul, he probably went there since it was like a home territory. That's when we first battled dark souls that weren't his own or summoned by Laserman. I mean, next to SoulNet that place is probably the most evil place on the Net. But still, that doesn't explain why it disappeared off the grid for such a long time."

"Lan…" Mayl whispered. He was going into one of his phases again.

Lan had become a bit obsessive over his various theories. He was constantly trying to get onto the Net by some manner to check the Dark Spots, or possible places darkness could exist on the Net, that he assumed Megaman could be hiding out. At one point, he had even taken his dad's ID card and gone into both SciLab files and archives looking for the Pulse Transmission Machine to get him into the Net to check himself. When that failed, he tried to use the plans he had downloaded into his PET to try and make one himself. But despite knowing that he never could with the materials he didn't have, he still continued down his road of insanity.

The red hair girl turned back to Chuad, afraid that he might break him.

"And how exactly do you know that Black Earth disappeared? You haven't been diving into business that's not your own have you?" Chuad said, his voice authoritative.

"Come off it. You probably already know how serious I am about getting Megaman back. Plus the sooner we find him, the sooner we can find Roll and our lives can go back to normal." Lan concluded, sure of himself. Megaman was the key to it all. He had to be! And he was going to find him. He knew his brother was still on the Net. He had come back from the grave twice now and there was no way that he would willingly let Regal damn him to a third. No, whatever that monster did to him, he could overcome it. He had beaten the dark chip before and he could beat it again.

"Lan, I'd hate to remind you but you do know that Megaman's a dark navi now right. He's not just going to come back. Plus, we have no idea if he's still alive. The same thing with Roll. We don't know what became of either of them after they jacked out of the Nebula Area. They could've gone to a different place entirely. We don't know that." he took a breath, "However, what I do know is that my navi is currently stuck in some unknown network and if you know anything at all about it, any information is appreciated." Chuad said.

As the words hit Lan, his eyes narrowed. His face began to get red, "Oh, so as long as your navi is in danger, I have to give a crap about your little predicament. I bet if it was Protoman who was turned into a dark navi, you would still be searching for him. In fact, better yet the officials would still be looking for him. You wouldn't have let them thrown your request to continue the search to the side. You would be in their faces until you did find him! And when you did, you would bring him back no matter what you had to give up," Lan shouted, jabbing a finger into Chuad's chest, "So don't come on your high horse to me. Now, if you're done with the negativity...no, actually I don't give a crap! Just get the hell out of my house!"

The household went still. The air turned cold as red hot anger began to blaze. Both women looked at the intensified scene stunned and with wide eyes. Neither had seen either of the young men so aggravated at each other before.

"What did you tell me?" Chuad spoke lowly.

"Get. The. Hell. Out." Lan said. His brown eyes raged with insane anger. When Chuad had heard that Lan had gone a little crazy, he didn't think he had gone this mad. No, he was still thinking, even somewhat logical still. But now, his sole existence was built around his inability to face reality. He had built himself a world where only he could live in so that he wouldn't have to face his brother's death a third time. But they had done everything they could. Megaman was dead and it was time for him to realize that.

"You know what you've changed Hikari. And I'm not sure if I can respect you with this new attitude of yours. And neither would Megaman."

That's when he snapped. Chuad didn't realize what had hit him when he was grabbed by the collar and shoved up against the wall. The brunette seemed like he was barely hanging onto control himself. However, he had barely regained it, "Not worth it. Just in the way." He grumbled before pushing him hard towards the direction of the foyer, "Don't hate me just because I told you the truth. You already know where the door is. You can figure out your own mess."

Chuad growled as he looked angrily at the teen who used to risk his life every time the world needed him. He would help whoever was in danger. Even if it was trouble for him to do, he would still continue to try his best to make the world better. He looked back at the red haired girl who looked stunned by the whole scene, "So, I guess all your voice of reasons are officially gone, Hikari."

Lan sneered. And now he was trying to guilt trip her, "Don't Mayl. He's not only stepping on my hopes but yours too. If we don't find Hub, we don't find Roll. No one wins and our lives continue on," Lan said. The young woman dropped her head and backed away. Her fist clenched. As much as she hated it, Lan had a point.

"So that's what you do now to people? You strip away their hope just like yours was!" Chuad erupted, angry at how this whole conversation was turning out.

"I'm not destroying hope. I'm just reminding her not to stick up for trash like you," Lan snarled.

"LAN HIKARI!" Haruka shouted. Angry or not, this had to stop. She had honestly been too stunned by Lan's violent reaction to say something earlier, but now she was more aware.

Lan gave Chuad a snide smirk, "Good luck with your little problem. _Hope_ you have better luck than I did. Though you should start with finding the door." And with that he turned back into his room and slammed the door loudly.

Haruka gave a sigh, "I'm sorry about him Chuad."

"Don't be," he said, looking back at the red haired girl who had gone as silent as a mouse. Suddenly, she walked past him and also headed back for her room.

"Mayl?" he said. What was with everyone trying to ignore him? "Mayl!" he called again as grabbed her wrist. Out of the two of them, she seemed like the one who would listen to the most reason. She also may be the only who could get Lan to...

WHACK!

Chuad barely registered the smack before he found himself on the floor. Mayl gave him a glare with tired brown eyes before retreating back into her own room, shutting the door quietly. She didn't like how Lan put it, but he was right. Without Megaman, they wouldn't find Roll. As without either of them, life would still be hell on earth with rocks on the top.

Haruka shook her head, "Well, I guess neither of them are having dinner until late tonight." She started to wrap up the two plates she had out and put them in the fridge. Then, she got her own plate and set the rest of the food in the fridge as well.

Chuad stared blankly at the two rooms down the hall. As he picked himself up, he noticed that Mrs. Hikari had just started eating. He looked back. What the heck just happened to him? He was not only insulted and provoked by Hikari but he was smacked by Sakurai.

"I'm afraid that's not even the worst side of them anymore," the brunette said, breaking the silence, "Lan refuses to talk to his father anymore. He's built up a grudge against anything related to SciLab after he tried to get to that...what was the name of it again?"

"Pulse Transmission Machine?" Chuad guessed. He remembered something about Lan being banned from SciLab having to do something with trying to get into a lot of projects he really wasn't supposed to be sticking his nose into.

"Yes, that was the name of it. Well, after his father found out that he had stolen his ID card to get past the security, he had Lan banned from the building. Not only was he messing with SciLab equipment, he was putting his own life in danger. Now, the two barely speak," Haruka took another bit of the food, "Losing his brother this time around was much harder than last time. I guess it's because this time instead of really losing him, we lost his spirit. We all still believe that Hub is alive, but we just don't know what kind of mental state he's in…" Haruka put down the utensils, "Oh my, I'm terribly sorry. Would you like some?"

"No, thank you. I've caused enough trouble tonight. It's just that I wasn't expecting that much…"

"Coldness? When Lan was banned from SciLab, he was put against a wall. We tried to talk to him, but I guess the only one who can stop his spiral is his brother. He won't stop trying until he finds him and brings him back home. All he'll say is that they're connected no matter what. He believes that he is alive." She sighed, "She might have been able to stop him from dropping so low if she wasn't going through her own turmoil."

"Mayl?"

Haruka nodded, "Roll is just as important to her as Megaman is to Lan. Losing her was a big shock to her. I think Lan going down just allowed her to sink further. She's always seemed to carry a torch for him. Watching both of them just disappear like that and then learning her father died, I'm surprised the worst she's getting is panic attacks."

"Any you and your husband?"

"I've lost Hub three times now and it still hurts as much as it has the first time he died. I guess the only difference between them and my husband and I is that we've have experienced with the death of close loved ones. Believe me, losing your child is the worst pain a mother can go through and there is no numbing it by time or anything like that," she looked down at the hallway with some of her own tears in her eyes, "But they don't. Lan lost Hub once but he had his friends to keep him together. This time, he not only lost his brother but his best friend also destabilized. The others tried, but Mayl always had a different effect on him. Without the other being there, the effect of having the carpet pulled from under them so early…"

Chuad went silent. Maybe he should have tried to be a little calmer around them.

"But I believe they're still alive," Chuad raised his head at the brunette woman, "I must Roll and Hub are going to be the only way to get Mayl and Lan back to normal. So, I too hold the hope that one day they'll return. And I know that whatever condition they're in, those two will do their best to make sure that they all come back home. And...well even if he is a navi, I still miss my little boy."

"Well then," Chuad said, walking towards the door, "I guess it's time for me to do my part then."

He gave Mrs. Hikari a smile before leaving. Just as he closed the door, he opened an PET went off signalling that an email that had just come in. His heart sank as he made a sprint for train station.

Protoman had just attacked SciLab.

* * *

"..."

"..."

"...You didn't do anything right?" Ghost asked, cautiously.

"Me? You're the trouble maker out of the two of us!" Emerald barked back.

"Me the trouble maker? You come up up with all the ideas!"

"Oh don't you start pointing fingers at-"

"Enough!" a voice rang out as a man walked forward. He was middle aged-ish, brown hair, green eyes. Somewhere around 55, Emerald thought. She had always forgotten his age. He didn't really wear much other than a lab coat, a purple dress shirt, and gray pants, "I swear; I wonder how you two survive in the same vicinity of each other sometimes."

"Hehehe…" both navi and operator nervously uttered, "Sorry, doc." Emerald said.

"We can't help it. It's part of our charm." Ghost added.

"Noted. Now, I brought you both here because I want to inform you that you both with be accompanied for the remainder of your missions." Dr. Robinson spoke.

"What! But doc, we're so much better on our own! If this is about what happened earlier, we're really sorry about that. We just wanted to know who we were up against and…" Emerald rambled.

"That's not the reason why," the doctor said leaning forward, "I've just learned what it was that the dark navi took from SciLab. The blueprints to a program. In fact, it was almost finished. It just needed a few other parts and it would have been operational. Anyway, this sudden break in can and will be interpreted as a sign of them making their move. _All_ Dark Hunters will be pairs from here on out."

"Alright, I guess that makes sense...even though for some inexplicable reason there are only two of us since everyone thought you were full of malarky when you tried and recruit people. Wait...but that means..." Ghost trailed.

"Guess who!" an excited voice said as both Ghost and Emerald's eyes shrunk.

"Oh...crap…."

* * *

Ghost: And the Dark Hunters finally get thrown into the action. Oh, and Chuad is getting the ever loving crap beaten out of him. That backhand has been waiting since DN1 to be written. Anypanel, happy fun time with the intro of the other Dark Hunter in this merry band.

Update: Friday

Ah! It's purple! Purple is officially everywhere! And why am I having DN flashbacks? And why is everything around me going white? When did Baryl get here? Why am I asking so many questions; I'm the author! Next time on **MMBN5 Disconnect: Dark Empire, Episode 6: Cry For Help**! Ghost501 logging out!


	6. Episode 6

**Review Responses:**

**Guest:** Thanks, yeah I made this story when I was still on my dark spree from DN3. So yeah, it's overall a dark story. But I'm glad you're liking it! Thanks for the comment!

**AKB0048ACCHAN62:** Yep, and more chaos with Emerald and Ghost awaits! Awesome! Someone likes that scene! That one was the hardest f the chapter to write because I wanted Mayl to hit him, but it was so hard to have Lan not. Plus yeah, he's always been the smart guy who runs mouth of before he can stop himself. Well anypanel, wait no more because the Episode 6 is here!

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest: July 26**

* * *

**Episode 6: Cry For Help**

"Now is that any way to talk to your sister?" a brunette girl with red highlights asked. Emerald merely facepalmed herself. She did _not _want to work with her older sister. It wasn't so much that she hated her, in fact she loved her, but it was the part when they had two entirely different reasons for being involved. Other than her "father" decided to wage a war against darkness in a time when darkness was pretty much nonexistent. This lead to a lot of request to join the team ignored and the two sisters were well...there.

Amber was a nice girl, seventeen years of age and with green eyes. However, the only rebel streak she had in her entire body were the red highlights in her hair. She always wore this blue vest over some kind of random T-shirt she found in her closet. Unlike Emerald, she normally stuck to slacks rather than jeans.

Emerald sighed, pushing a green bang out of her face, "Hi, Amber. Nice to see you." She said flatly, though somewhat jokingly. The raven haired girl glared at Dr. Robinson. Ghost, on the other hand, wasn't doing much better.

"Oh boy..." the light blue navi said sarcastically as his friend walked up to him.

"Ghost, sometimes a pleasure," the purple navi fired back.

"Flattery won't get you anywhere, Tox."

"Why would I need to flatter when I'm already better," she jabbed, rolling her blue eyes. Tox stood a couple inches shorter than Ghost's 5'2" height and donned a helmet, although her short black hair was visible. Unlike most navis, her navi symbol, two red snake fangs with dripping venom on a green backdrop, was only on the back of her hands. A green line ran up from the right side of her body to slightly wrap around the back of her neck and end just a little below her left shoulder. Though the viper like appearance of the line didn't match her more nicer attitude.

"Yeah right. Tell that to the video footage of me winning that spar last week," Ghost shot back, a smirk on his face.

"Alright, that's enough you two," Emerald interjected, detecting a fight beginning to break out. It wasn't too hard to get the two friends to jump into a friendly rivalry between each other. She turned her crimson eyes toward Dr. Robinson, "So what made you decide to put Amber and I together? Or rather, why decide now to par us up?"

"Trust me it was the most clear decision I've made today. Each of you is somewhat of a flip side of the other. Both you and Ghost have a more...elegant reason for deciding to fight. Amber and Tox just want to stop the spread of darkness on the Net. However," he leaned forward in his chair staring back at her with brown eyes, "I can't allow your rebel streak to continue. You two will find yourself in a mess if you just continue just doing whatever you want."

"And you think having Amber around is going to stop us?" Emerald asked sarcastically. She was already beginning to make a plan to lose Amber somewhere outside of the building and head over to SciLab. The attack was over, but maybe she or Ghost could pick up some information about just what exactly was stolen. It wasn't like Dr. Robinson was going to just give her the information despite her having other means of getting the what she needed and he wasn't going to leave his desk soon either.

"It will at least give you both some time to get your head on straight. I don't need what happened five months ago to happen again," the doctor said pointedly, pushing his glasses on his face. Emerald frowned, knowing what he was referring to.

"It wasn't all my fault…" Ghost grumbled.

"Just mostly…" Tox countered, jabbing him with her elbow lightly. She hadn't been too much of a fan having to pull the almost lifeless navi out to safety after he almost went berserk in that power grid. Then again, Kotobuki was still a strange place to begin with, even after the whole Gospel Bug Accident some years back.

"I wasn't aiming for the server!" Ghost growled back. Tox raised her eyebrow. She hadn't meant anything behind her joke, so what was he getting so defensive about?

"Calm down, Ghost!" Emerald said. The navi crossed his arms, a sign that he would at least be ignoring everyone for the rest of this meeting unless something interesting caught his attention. The raven haired girl sighed. Sometimes it was times like these that made her wonder what Ghost would be like if he had never been brought into this mess. But she normally cut the train there for fear because such a train of thought would only cause her to wonder about her own life.

Dr. Robinson sighed, "While I applaud your skills, the both of you, I can't forget that each of you have a personal vendetta in this matter. That's why Amber and Tox are going with you."

Emerald didn't turn around. She didn't need Amber's "I'm sorry" look. She knew what the doctor wasn't saying. If you two get out of hand, I'm making sure that you won't be able to do anything else. Emerald scoffed before turning around and exiting the room.

Amber looked at her sister with sad eyes, "I guess dinner together is off tonight," She commented.

"If you think our family problems are bad, then you don't want to know what happens next. The barrier around Black Earth is about to fall." Dr. Robinson said grimly.

"Really! But I thought you said we had a few more days? Wait...you don't mean…" Amber started.

"Something must have happened to cause a power shift. Either that or they started pounding harder. When I locked the system, I never imagined that they would have been able to crack through that barrier so soon."

"Why didn't you just destroy that place?"

"Because, Black Earth wasn't meant to be the home of dark soul navis. No, it evolved into that after Regal went mad with his Dark Power and started purging it into the Net. No. I created Black Earth for one reason only," the doctor opened up a laptop on his desk and watched as the barrier's health bar dropped to 5%. It would be down by the end of tomorrow, "I created it as a trap. A trap for the only navi powerful enough to destroy and adapt to anything. The human soul Net Navi, Megaman . EXE."

* * *

Drusk was smirking when he saw his king still pacing around like a maniac. If he had known that this was the expected results of this news, then he would have at least started to record him for future reference. Still, it couldn't be helped. They had known about something that could make sure that a dark navi wouldn't return from the grave, but this was the first time a Dark Hunter had been confirmed doing it.

Drusk turned his black eyes away from King Hub for a moment. A navi that could destroy the very Dark Core of a navi. He had to admit, even he wasn't expecting that. That Program Advance was a deadly one. However, there was something familiar about that navi. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about him made him recount the navis he deleted. Maybe he had run into him on a raid somewhere? He was a Dark Hunter after all. Still, he thought he would remember a navi with that kind of power.

Drusk shook his head and looked back at Dark Hub, who had finally stopped pacing. The navi flicked his crimson eyes at him, "And you're absolutely sure that Tomahawkman and Thunderman haven't been reformed?"

"I've checked twice now. If they were coming back, they would already be in front of you asking for another chance," Drusk said. He never appreciated being asked the same question more than once. However, the navi in front of him did have enough power in his hand to delete him without a trace. So...no mouthing off to the boss. He could just take it out on someone later. Though that little Mr. Program was destroyed now...hmm...he began to think about whether there would be any navis in Town Area he could delete.

"Hmm. This does complicate things," the navi mumbled as he started opening up more documents. Shadowman had come back with a few more documents pertaining to the one he had Protoman steal from him. Searchman should still be out making sure that the swordsman had no trouble once he got out of SciLab. A new dark link had been made for them so Protoman should be here soon with their new program.

"I don't see how. We'll just take a few standard navis hostage, delete the Dark Hunter, and then delete the other navis when he's gone," Drusk explained plainly. Why did no one see the value in just _ending_ your problems. It made them so much easier to deal with!

"That's your problem Drusk. You're too short sighted. Even if we delete the Dark Hunter, it is the capability that worries me. Not the navi," Hub retorted, pulling up another piece of data, "This group has the ability to create navis that can delete our Dark Cores. Stopping one won't be the answer. No, we need to figure out where these navis are being made and end it there."

"Another SciLab raid? After Protoman's mess, I don't know how easy that's going to be."

Hub shook his head, "It's not supposed to be easy. It's going to be devastating. The point isn't to kill their soldiers; it's to annihilate their moral. Take away their reason and hope for fighting and they be easy to take over."

"So then what's the point of taking this SciLab program?"

"Let's just say that the humans put too much emphasis on these bonds of theirs. Something that I plan to take full advantage of."

"Funny, considering your background," Drusk grumbled underneath his breath. Much like Slur, he really obeyed Hub because of his power. Though the two females may have grown "close", the two males were still worlds apart and stood on a fragile line of understanding. In fact, when they had first met, Drusk had challenged the navi before Hub had beaten him down into the ground with barely a scratch on him. It had taken him a week to reform after that defeat.

"Anything more to report?" Hub asked, looking over at him with blank eyes.

"No. The video program has been deleted as you requested." Drusk replied.

"Good…" the navi could have sworn he saw a twinkle in the blood red chaos which were his eyes right before Drusk jumped out of the way. Flames erupted from the ground where Drusk had just been standing, "Next time when you have a comment to say, make sure I _can't_ hear you. Remember the last time you pissed me off."

"Yes, sir…" Drusk said begrudgingly.

"Oh and when Protoman returns, let him in so that he can give me the program."

"I could just give it to you."

"You could...but you're not going to." Hub said, his tone ending the conversation. Drusk nodded and left for the link out of Black Earth 6.

Hub took a breath. A navi that could delete a Dark Core. Very frightening. However, if they succeeded then none of that would matter. Hub scoffed as he continued to think about the ones who would be on the receiving end of his plans.

Humans. They treated navis as if were inferior and meant to take the abuse of being less than human or just a servant of man rather than an ally. Oh, how he was going to show them just how wrong they were. He was going to abuse the very bonds they cherished and show them the true power of the Net Navi. Dark Hub looked down at his symbol. He knew that the actual Hub Hikari had survived Nebula Gray's attack. But as long as he was locked up in that Soul Core, there was nothing he could do. Dark Hub owned this body and in turn owned him. And he wasn't ready to give it up. Plus, it wasn't like his life got that much worse.

Hub gave a smirk as he heard someone else link into the network. He wasn't surprised when he felt someone else's presence next to him, "No hug?"

"Nope, in too good of a mood," Reina said nicely. Hub closed the file he was looking at and turned to see his wife. It was...interesting actually marrying a navi. What was funny is that no one was actually sure about how to do it. It wasn't like navis normally engaged in such human rituals, especially since most of them never understood the emotions that went with marriage. Still, they decided to go along with it.

"Well, what has you so happy?"

"Oh, I finally got the chance to delete Shademan. And then while I was walking around, I noticed more cracks in that barrier. Maybe it'll be down in less than a few more days now," she said wistfully, "Perhaps with everything going on here, it has become weaker. After all, it's been a busy day."

"Maybe," he said.

Reina turned her head to the side, "What's wrong with you?"

"Dark Hunters," Hub started as he heard the sound of two more navis coming into the network. He gave a dark smile as he saw Protoman, "but maybe this will change all that."

"It's incomplete," Protoman started as he handed the file over, "Some of the navis there were saying that it needs several more lines to fix it. Though with the way they were smiling before I took it, it shouldn't be that much more. But we're still going to need a programmer to finish the job."

Hub nodded and opened up the file. He turned around for a minute and began to look at the data in front of him before he spoke, "Is Regal still imprisoned?"

"Probably. Net terrorism is a pretty big deal isn't it?" Drusk said.

"Good. Find out where he is and break him out. We need a human and Regal's the only doctor I trust to not screw it up. SciLab is too full of people who only want to see my demise. He's the only one crazy enough to possible trust a dark soul navi," the dark navi said.

"You really want to trust Regal?" Protoman asked. He quickly shut his trap when he realized who he had just questioned.

Dark Hub hadn't taken it as an offense. It was a worthy comment; one he had an answer to. "I'm not going to trust him. Oh no," he smirked as he closed the file and placed it to the side, "I'm going to break him and get him to finish the code. When he's done, we'll dump him in some asylum." the navi looked back at the two, "Well, you have your orders. Find Regal and bring him."

Both navis nodded and left the network. Reina sighed, "It's a shame. All the exciting stuff gets to happen out there while we're stuck in here."

"Don't worry. You'll have your fun. When the barrier drops, I've got a job for you and Slur that I'll know you love. A gift really."

"Really," she asked, sending him a sly look, "What kind of gift?"

"I need you to pay a _friend_ a visit. You know the one who insists on ignoring us."

Reina's purple red eyes gain a dark twinkle, "That sounds like an amazing gift," she said giving him a hard kiss, "Though to be fair, I wouldn't listen to Drusk either. The navi tends to give everyone the creeps."

"That's why I sent him. But now, it's time to be a bit more...aggressive. This game is going to end way before they even realize it had begun. Speaking of which, where is she?"

"Oh, something about having to go check one of the links," Reina said, smirking, "Now...about your thank you..."

* * *

"Unbelievable…" Chuad gaped as he watched the footage of Dark Protoman trashing the SciLab network. Apparently, Zero had tried to stop the red navi from breaking in, but Protoman had grown a lot stronger since their first encounter. The dark navi had apparently used some kind of battle chip to make his appearance look like the actual Protoman. However, Zero had detected something wrong and his cover had been blown. Unfortunately, Zero was not ready to face the full force that the ace dark navi had to offer.

"So, the world of dark navis has returned," Baryl said calmly. He had been called in shortly after Protoman had attacked. It amazed him really. Six years of peace and now everything was going to hell. The world really was an interesting place. However, now they had lost one of their greatest aces in all of history. And who knew, he could've been at the center of the whole thing. Granted if he was still alive.

"Any idea about how he got that way?" Colonel asked after the footage stopped.

"I don't know. The last place Protoman was Black Earth, or rather what I believe to be," Chuad said.

"What you believe to be?" Baryl questioned.

"Well, yes. As you know, Black Earth disappeared from all networks after Nebula was destroyed. But I don't know of many places that give off an eerie vibe and causes communication loss with a navi," Chuad concluded.

"That doesn't explain how Protoman got his hands on a Dark Chip." Colonel said.

"I actually…" Chuad swallowed '_I'm really glad Lan isn't here right now.' _Lan's theory had been consuming his mind as he had been riding the train up to SciLab. And sure enough, the teen _did_ have a point, "have a theory." He choked out. Baryl nodded, "What if Megaman is still alive in Black Earth. It could explain his disappearance. If he's there then he probably has enough Dark Power to create dark navis."

"We never did locate him," Baryl muttered. He hadn't been happy with the decision to leave Megaman assumed for dead, but he hadn't had much of a choice after the officials forced him to disband Team Colonel. True, he had searched a little longer with Colonel. However he had soon merely accepted that he wasn't going to find someone who didn't want to be found. It was Megaman he was searching for. Dark soul or not, the navi knew how to hold his own.

"It would explain why dark navis are suddenly appearing. If Black Earth has a much Dark Power as we believe, there could be a whole army at this point," Colonel agreed.

"So then we assume Megaman is alive and still under the Dark Power's influence. The question is how do we beat a navi who's not only defeated us and gods among the Net, but one who's possibly building an army?" Chuad mused.

"We get the one person who he can't hurt." Baryl leaned down in a seat.

"You really think it's a good idea bringing Lan in on this?" the skunk haired boy asked, remembering how the boy's mental state from merely a few hours ago.

"It's for the best. When will you meet with him?" Baryl asked as he began to think about strategies to stop the dark souls.

"Maybe you're better off going…" Chuad said, slightly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Why?"

"Let's just say that me saying that at this current point in time is more insult to injury than it is helpful," Chuad replied, turning to leave, "Also, go there with an open mind. He's not the same Lan Hikari you remember."

* * *

"I didn't want to believe it, but I guess it's true..." Tox murmured as she continued to look at the notes from Dr. Robinson's computer. The man had sent them to check up on a trail of Dark Power that he believed to be that of the person who had raided SciLab. After Emerald's departure, he really didn't have anyone else to ask.

"That barrier isn't going to last much longer," Amber sighed. However, a majority of her attention wasn't on the fact that the world's evil was soon going to be unleashed upon the Net. Granted, she held it as a valid concern but there was something more important to her to think about at the moment. The recent mention of Kotobuki had caused her to once again wonder about her sister's past. The personal vendetta that her father had spoken of.

"Amber," Tox said, breaking her train of thought, "I think the trail may be sending us to another dark hole. The Dark Power around here is intensifying with every step I take."

"Alright, be careful." Amber replied as she went back to her own little world.

_"Hi!" a brown haired girl said happily. She had gotten so excited when her dad had told her that she would be getting a little sister today. She had always wanted one, especially after the divorce case with her parents. It just never seemed like there were enough people to talk to as her parents argued and argued more. But she always tried to remain somewhat positive. At least it couldn't be the worst thing ever right? And sure enough, she had been rewarded for her optimism with the black haired girl in front of her._

_Emerald was a ten year old girl, but to Amber her sister dressed a lot more like a tomboy than a girl. She only wore a t-shirt, a pair of pants, and sneakers. But to each their own, she guessed. She was just happy to have her as part of her family!_

_"Hey," Emerald replied nervously. At least she was out of the orphanage. Her "father" had gone to kitchen to go make dinner and had left her to get know her "sister"._

_"What's your name? I'm Amber."_

_"Emerald."_

_"Hey we both have jewel names!" Amber noted happily! She was already finding stuff in common with her already!_

_"Does that mean you both will have expensive tastes later on in life?" a voice asked, interrupting the flow._

_"No Ghost," Emerald rolled her eyes as she pulled out her PET to look at him. The navi merely shrugged in response._

_Amber peered over her shoulder, "Is that your navi?"_

_"Yeah, Ghost, Amber. Amber, Ghost." Emerald said, "Do you have a PET too?"_

_"Hi Ghost! And yeah, but my navi is off doing something right now. She should be back soon." Amber nodded._

_"Hello!" Ghost responded as he turned back to his NetOp, "I like her. She's...wait you said you have a girl navi?"_

_"Yeah?" Amber raised an eyebrow._

_Ghost facepalmed, "Great...outnumbered 4 to 1." He mumbled._

_"Don't mind him. He's nuts," Emerald said, "So any idea what's for dinner?"_

_"From the looks of it, meatloaf. I hope you guys don't get sick. He seems to be trying something new with it...again." a new voice said as someone popped into Emerald's PET._

_"Tox! What are you doing in Emerald's PET?" Amber asked._

_The blue navi's mouth dropped, "She's _your_ Net Navi! Well...this is going to be fun..."_

_Emerald laughed as Amber looked at the three confused. The black haired girl whipped a tear out of her eye and turned, "When your dad came to talk about the adoption, I was one of the few who actually had a navi. So Tox would talk to Ghost a lot. We just thought she was your dad's."_

_"Oh. I always had school when he went, so I sent Tox for me!" Amber said as the purple navi jumped back into her PET._

_"Girls! Dinner!" the man of the hour called._

_The two girls looked at each other nervously. Amber had been the victim of her father's meatloaf before. It wasn't a pretty thing to behold. Finally, the raven haired girl turned to her., a spark in her eyes_

_"Hey Amber. I know we just became sisters and all but I need you to cover for me..." she said quietly._

_"Huh?" Amber asked._

_"Yeah, distract your dad please. I promise to get you a pizza as well. I heard the stories from Tox. Not sure I want to go through that on the first day." Emerald said as she ran off to go make a phone call._

_Amber smiled, "Cheese please!"_

It hadn't been easy getting Emerald to fully stop putting quotes around the word sister, but eventually the two had become-in Amber's opinion-the best sisters. The two had sorta meshed together and learned how to be family despite not sharing blood. Now, well they were quite close despite the two still wanting their space from each other at times. However, there wasn't ever a time where Amber could get Emerald to open up to her about her past.

Every time she tried, Emerald just said that she wouldn't understand. Amber was never really sure how to feel about it. She was her sister! It didn't matter if they shared blood or not! They could be there for each other! Just what the heck was the big secret! As she sighed and shook her head, she began to notice that Tox was slowing down. Or rather, more like she was gearing up for something.

"Tox?" Amber asked cautiously before Tox jumped out of the way. Wires slammed into the ground as the purple navi landed on her feet.

"I thought I smelled a rat. Or in this case, a white haired mouse," Tox said as Slur walked out of the shadows, "What's the matter? Expecting some one else?"

"Well yes. You Dark Hunters always practiced such cowardice. I suppose you have been the one who has been trying to cut down our forces. Though I must applaud your recent victory. Destroying Knightman was quite a victory. However, I do wonder how you brought one of the strongest defensive navis to his knees."

"Stick around for a bit. I'll be glad to show you. Maybe give you some pointers so you can start giving lessons to your friends. Amber!" Tox yelled.

"Right! Battle Routine! Set!"

"Execute!"

* * *

"Tox Needle!" Tox's hand morphed into a buster as she fired several needles at the white navi, "What are you even doing here? Isn't the OverNet too bright for ya?"

"Not at all. However, you're too close to a dark hole for anyone's liking. Leaving now rather than starting a fight would be more beneficial to you," Slur launched her wires around the navi's buster and tightened its hold on it.

"Get off of her! Sword! Download!" Tox raised the blue blade and struck the cords around her. As her hand returned back to normal, a couple of marks could be seen on the navi's wrist.

"Shoot! Tox, she damaged your buster. Recovery 150! Program Advance! LockShot1,2,3! Warp Shot!" The marks around her hand began to fade as her hand once again turned into a buster, this time it was an army green color. A small visor appeared on her helmet as she took aim and fired the Program Advance.

Instead of aiming at her, the shot went completely past Slur and disappeared behind her. The white navi turned to her, "Trying to disorient me with that weapon won't work Dark Hunter."

"Don't worry. There's more where that came from. Poison Panel! Ice Spear! Scrambler! Download!" Amber said as the ground underneath Tox began to turn into purple, swirly marsh. The panels underneath her didn't affect her because her natural ability was poison; however, Slur could float and avoid their effects...for now.

Tox grabbed the spear and chucked it at Slur. The white navi smirked and caught the weapon in her hand before breaking it, "That kind of attack won't work on me."

"But you don't get it...it did!" Tox smiled as the white navi began to fall to the ground. When she had broken the spear, she hadn't accounted for the Scrambler chip which was now stopping her Air Shoes and Float Shoes program. Soon, she was on the same field as Tox. Only, she was actually affected by the poison.

"Celestial Halo!" Slur launched several rings at the purple navi. While, Tox had missed most of them, one of them had caught her by the leg.

"AHHH!" she yelled as she hit the ground hard. The impact of the blast had almost blown off her leg. As she got back up, she realized that she could no longer put any weight on it without causing herself to topple over. She needed to end this fight soon.

"So, Dark Hunter. What was that about teaching me to kneel?" Slur asked as a blade of yellow light appeared in her hands.

"I said, that was only your warm up." Tox smirked as Amber downloaded one more chip.

"Gravity Panel! Download!" the panel in front of Tox began to turn blue with faint rings around it. As Slur began to walk, she didn't notice the Tox had closed her eyes and titled her finger upwards. Slur smirked as the blade was raised above the navi's head. However, she wasn't expecting Tox to be smiling either, "I guess I wasn't powerful enough to take you head on right now. Knew I should've left that stuff to Ghost. But, I think...you're going to remember me."

Tox quickly changed her hand into her buster and fired a needle...into the Warp Shot. The Program Advance had been inside the warp it had disappeared into hiding in wait for the command to reappear and had done soon under the guise of the marsh of the Poison Panel. The needle embedded itself into it as Slur turned. Using her surprise, Amber jacked out Tox from the network.

Slur jumped out the way as the affects of the battle began to disappear. As she landed back onto the ground, she grimaced. She brought a hand to arm. She may have won the battle, but she might not make it to see the end of the war. In light, in had only been a scratch. But one drop had been enough.

Slur could feel the Dark Hunter's poison in her. It was slow considering that she had missed most of the attack. But the point was that no one who had encountered the purple navi had ever lived. And she was beginning to figure out how, in fact, Knightman had been done in.

The same way she was going to be.

* * *

Ghost: Wow, there was just so much talking and not as much description. But as you all can see, a lot happened. Regal's back in this, Ghost and Emerald are teaming up with Tox (man, DN flashbacks) and Amber, and Black Earth isn't what you think it is. Oh, and Chuad cruising for another bruising and Slur's been poisoned. I feel like I've beaten up on the poor guy a lot. And I typically use Mayl to do it. Anyway, the battle chip Protoman used to sneak past the guards is the one that Reina corrupted in an earlier episode. Ah...don't you love these kinds of situations?

Update: Friday

Slur's attacks brought to you by BalanceM88.

I'm sorry...I would tell you guys more but I seem to be unable to see anything other than red and pixels are flying everywhere. Guess it's going to be some fight next time on **MMBN5 Disconnect: Dark Empire, Episode 7: First Rule of Fight Night**! Ghost501 logging out!


	7. Episode 7

**Review Responses:**

**MWSeraph:** Dark Soul navis are the true corrupt navis. Sorry, bout the confusion. People from DN3 may catch onto my views of Dark Navi created by Dark Chips in BN5 versus the ones that are born in Black Earth (BN4) which I consider to be the true dark beings since they are not only there to test Megaman but also since they kinda pop up for no reason seeing as the light form navis that you encounter in their DS forms in Black Earth are still alive and well.

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest: July 26 midnight**

* * *

**Episode 7: First Rule of Fight Night**

Ghost stared out from the Hunter Network. There weren't too many times that people merely caught him sitting down looking at absolutely nothing. Then again, many of the navis around here were standard navis only outfitted to be, at best, foot soldiers for the Dark Hunters. The real hunters were Ghost and Tox. But if it really hadn't been for Amber's relations to Emerald, he probably wouldn't have even become the purple navi's friend. He had his own problems to worry about.

He had been amazed that the small group had even been operational for the two years it had been. Somehow getting standard navis into the ranks of the officials under their noses and then trying to locate and sever any dark hole that appeared. Sometimes getting into skirmishes with dark navis and surviving to live another day. Yep, the tenacity of the people around him truly caught his interest.

"Wow, you must really be in a fog. You didn't even see me," a voice said.

"Yooww!" Ghost yelled, moving from his left. His eyes narrowed when he realized it was just Tox, who was currently laughing at his expense, "Geez, would it kill ya to wear a bell?" Ghost grumbled.

"Sorry, didn't know you would jump out of your body. Then again, your name is Ghost. Probably should have expected that."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how's the leg?" the light blue navi asked.

"Better. Wish I could've done more. I guess all that reckless close combat stuff really is your field." Tox said with a smile.

"Hey, I'm not that reckless!" Ghost responded.

Tox laughed, "You not reckless. Yeah, right! You've got to be the most reckless of the family!"

"Waa? Me? Nope, I believe you have me confused with my NetOp." he smirked and looked back at the space in front of him. He sighed, "Hard to believe right?Soon, none of this is even going to matter anymore. Once Black Earth is cleared of all the dark navis, Dr. Robinson's work will be completed and we'll just go back to being regular navis again," Ghost responded.

"True," Tox nodded, "But I'm just happy that we can at least make the place a safer world without darkness. I mean imagine if Nebula Gray really was broadcasted to everyone using Soul Net. The world would be a much different place."

"Likely. Any world with Regal ruling is a place I wouldn't want to be in."

"Yeah, but when I think about it. There's a lot of evil in the planet. To have something what was supposed to be the embodiment of man's evil controlling us..." Tox sentence trailed off, "I just want to make sure that that world never exists!"

"Hmph. No offense, but your reasoning is typical," Ghost said flatly.

Tox dropped her head a bit, "I know. It's what everyone wants but…" Her eyes brightened for a second, "Isn't that your reason for being here?"

"Not really," Ghost said, catching Tox off guard. The reasons for his alliances was something that was never really brought up. She had always guessed there was something more to his reasoning for fighting and that they were probably tied to Emerald's past, but the two never talked about old events, "I mean sure do I want a world were anything Regal created is ruling us? Hell no. But there's someone more important that Regal out there."

"More important than Regal?" Tox said, shocked.

"Yeah," Ghost said staring out again. For a minute all he saw were flames and data. He had heard sounds of other fallen navis. And then, all he saw was nothing. Darkness. Fire. Screams. There wasn't much else on his mind for just a few seconds before he snapped back to reality. He shook his head and turned to see a concerned Tox looking at him.

"You okay?"

"Fine," he said getting up.

However, as he did, something caught Tox's eye. Or rather, re caught it. It wasn't the first time she had gotten this urge to ask him about his navi symbol. That crack wasn't normal. No designer would leave a navi icon like that on purpose. She had never asked him about his symbol merely because she didn't feel as though it was her place to. Every time she had planned to, something always stopped her from doing so. Now with Dr. Robinson talking about some kind of personal vendetta, she was beginning to wonder if she would regret her next utterance, "Hey, why is your emblem cracked? I mean, it seems like you're just asking someone to take a shot at you." She asked.

Suddenly before Ghost could respond, Emerald's face appeared on a screen in front of them, "Ghost! Tox! We need to go! Someone's trying to break Regal out of the Electopia Jail!"

Ghost merely smirked as his NetOp disappeared, "For the same reason I'm who I am. Come on! Hate to give Emerald a hard time!"

"Wait, isn't that one of your favorite things to do?" Tox asked following close behind.

"Not when there's a fight involved!"

* * *

"GAAAHHHH!" a navi yelled as he was thrown to the ground. A hole was were his System Core should have been.

"Hmm...this seemed more fun in my head," Drusk said as he put down his sword. Yet another navi was deleted by his hand. My, my. He must be up in the thousands or ten thousands by now. He looked to the side to see Protoman and Burnerman doing their part in keeping some of the more annoying backup away from him and his goal.

While he never truly settled with the idea of using Regal as their provider, he wasn't going to argue with the king, "Ah well, orders are orders. It's time to go see the good doctor. I wonder if he's still sane. After all, isolation for six years does strange things to humans," he said as a number of guard navis showed up, trying to prevent his passing.

Drusk merely laughed to himself, "Dark Air Rack." He said as a type of fan appeared on his fan. '_Note to self, keep one of them alive to see if results are the same in navis.'_ He thought before unleashing a blast of air that pushed everyone backwards off their feet.

"Shadow Blind," the room filled with darkness. Soon the only one who could actually see anything was Drusk. He raised a Dark Sword and started slashing at any opponent in the room. Only dark navis could see in such pitch black. As the room cleared, he was the only one standing. The other navis had either been deleted or were critically wounded and would need to be jacked out to save their life. He dissipated the sword and continued walking towards the control panel for Dr. Regal's cell.

Soon enough, he found the location he was looking for. It had taken a while for Numberman to actually be certain of the location Regal was in, but he had found it sure enough. It amazed Drusk that the navi was actual useful for one thing. Getting the security codes. Had it not been for Burnerman's impulsiveness they could have gotten out of the area without too much trouble. But water under the bridge now. The boss wouldn't care as long as they had the man of the hour.

Drusk closed his eyes to check his internal clock. He had fifteen minutes to get Regal out of his cell and onto a bus that Sparkman had acquired. He had enough time. He started pressing in a few key codes. He smirked as he deepened his voice. Perhaps the man would be more responsive to a dark voice, "Dr. Regal!"

The man raised his head and looked towards the camera, which had an audio speaker on it. Good, he didn't look insane to Drusk, "As you can see, you've been pardoned in the name of the Dark King. Once you leave this cell, head straight for the exit and turn left. Catch the first bus you see. The rest will be explained later."

"And to what incentive would I have to join you?" the man asked. His face creased in confusion, almost as if he was trying to remember or determine something.

_'Still an ignorant__ human.'_ "You can continue to rot in this cell if you want."

* * *

"Burning Jet!" the dark navi yelled as he blazed forward. Fire burned around the navi as he moved.

"Screen Divide!" Colonel fired a greenish wave that intercepted the navi causing him to bounce backwards. However before Colonel could move to chain the attack, he was once again cut off by Protoman. The black navi growled as he tried to push the dark soul off his blade, but Protoman, dark or not, was still a formidable swordsman. The two stayed locked in combat.

"Protoman, open your eyes! You're being used by the Dark Power! Can't you see this isn't you? You don't serve the Dark Power!" Colonel asked, trying to reason. Unknown to the Dark Soul, Baryl, Chuad, Lan, and Mayl were all watching the scene take place. It had been less difficult than expected to get the two teenagers onto their side (and Chuad did get one smack upside the head from Lan in the end) but now everyone was beginning to wonder just how hard it would be to take back their friends.

"You're right. I don't serve the Dark Power," his purple blade began to glow, "I serve King Hub and Queen Reina! And you are not part of the plan! Delta Ray Edge!"

Colonel barely had a split second to react before Protoman jumped back and charged at him, seemingly coming for three different angles. The black navi fell to the ground; he had barely protected his navi symbol from being broken. However, he had bigger problems. Burnerman was in front of him, a lighter ignited. It didn't help the flame navi's mood was quite bad seeing that his other lighter had been cut off during a surprise attack from Colonel.

"Time to light the candle and make my wish. Can you guess what it's going to be?" Burnerman asked deviously.

For the NetOps, things were going in a standstill. Baryl was trying to help Colonel, but the PET's battle function had frozen for a moment. It was almost as it had expected Colonel to be dead and tried to call it quits early. Chuad was in shock because his partner had delivered such a crippling blow without any remorse. Even in an actual fight, Protoman never went for the symbol. How far gone was he? Was he really losing him...forever?

Lan and Mayl? Well...no one really wanted to be in their minds at the moment. Lan's was in torment. He was happy his brother was alive, but then began berating himself for not trying to find him earlier and leaving him to combat the darkness for six years by himself. Though one thought echoed in his head, he had been right all along and his attempts to get his brother back hadn't been for naught. Now, he just had to really find him and save him from the Dark Power. He could save him from Regal's evil and bring him home. He had too...

Mayl on the other hand was unsure on what to think. She felt certain that this Reain was Roll under a different name. Which probably meant that she too had fallen to the Dark Power. But that was just the thing. She couldn't have a 100% confirmation. She felt almost fearful to put this much trust into it because what would happen if it wasn't Roll. What if this Reina character was just some girl Hub had picked up and Roll was somewhere else. What if she was...no. NO! She wasn't going to think about that. Roll was alive. She just needed to keep telling herself that until she found her beloved friend.

There was silence as Burnerman placed his flame in front of Colonel. The navi flicked his eyes up to see that Dr. Regal was already running through a screen that was being displayed by Protoman. Good, then it was time to clean the house. The flame navi smiled eagerly as he prepared to end Colonel once and for all.

"Tox Needle!" a voice rang as several sharp small projectiles embed themselves into Burnerman. As they melted in, he could feel them forcing his programming into a bug state. His energy was dropping and fast too. What kind of attack was this?

"Air Blade!" another said as Protoman was rushed by a light blue navi. The navi jumped back at then launched an air wave pushing the dark swordsman into the dark lighter. Both navis hit each other with an "omph!" as they fell to the ground.

"Well, better late than never," a female voice said.

"Are you okay?" the other asked.

Both dark navis got back up to their feet, Burnerman slower than Protoman, "And who the hell are you?" Burnerman growled.

"I would tell you, but…" the blue navi said as a yellow sword appeared on his other hand, "You're good as deleted in a couple of minutes. I don't see a point."

"But if you must have some idea…" the purple one said as her buster was changed into a yoyo, "We're Dark Hunters. And we're the last things you're going to see! Yo-yo 3!" she yelled as she launched the weapon at Burnerman.

Protoman jumped ahead of him and deflected the attack with his own sword, which left them both open, "Holy Blade!" the blue navi launched several waves of yellow energy. The attack shattered Protoman's Dark Sword and belted its way through the two navis.

Burnerman tried to stand up, but he could feel the effects of the poison rip through him. He was coming to his end, but it would be alright. He would just regenerate back at Black Earth and come back for his revenge later. He let his mind wander to how gorgeous the little purple one would look alight in blue flames.

However, she had caught his look and smiled at him, "By the way, if you're thinking you're just going to come back, I guess I should warn you that my poison goes straight into your Dark Core. I'm afraid that once you hit 0, it's game over for you!"

Wait...if his energy dropped this fast...that mean that he would be deleted in a matter of seconds at this rate. How much poison had she given him? Burnenrman looked at the purple navi with pure malice, "You...YOU! BURNING JET!" The rage he felt allowed the navi to push himself forward. As his data fell apart, his flames still roared. By the time he was gone, the wall of flame still pushed forward.

"Barrier! Download!" one of the female operators said as a white shield appeared around the purple navi. As the fire burned out, so the shield, "Tox! Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry, Amber," Tox said. She hadn't been expecting _that_ reaction. Normally they just kinda sputtered out and she could land the finishing blow. Guess not all dark souls acted the same after all. Although, he had been a hot head.

Protoman stepped back. He wasn't a fool. Like it or not, he needed to leave. Even with Colonel crippled to a bloodly pulp, these two Dark Hunters could probably do away with him in S rank time. Before he could devise a plan, he noticed that the whole field was covering in darkness. Even the light of the yellow blade was disappearing.

"Run while you can Protoman, I'll take care of the Hunters," Drusk said as he walked past him. Protoman nodded and jacked out of the area. The dark navi began walking closer to the purple one. She was the one with the long range capability. It would be bad to get into a fight with the Dark Core deleter with her still in play. Drusk raised his dark sword and prepared to strike.

He swiped.

CLANG!

However, he was met with the sound of a blade scratching another. He looked down to see the glowing gray eyes of the navi he had been trying to avoid.

"Get away from her!" the navi roared as he sent him flying backwards, "Emerald!"

"Right! Program Finisher! Custom Blade! Program Advance! Midnight Blade!" the girl said roughly as she downloaded the chip. Amber turned her head. There was a glint in Emerald's eyes that she had never seen before. And actually, it was beginning to scare her.

The blade shone with black light as the navi raised and arm and blew the darkness away with a swipe. Drusk looked carefully at the navi. Come to think of it, he did look like someone familiar. Who was it…

"I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should," the navi said darkly as he kept walking forward. Drusk readied his blade while Tox was looking at the navi, surprised. Not because that he had saved her, but the amount of anger the navi was putting off was almost like an aura. Then again, something seemed...off about this navi.

"Can't remember me? Tsch, in the end I could really care less if you do," the navi started. "The only thing that matters to us is that we finally caught up to you," his operator continued to send in chips, "Sanctuary! Download!"

The field underneath everyone was covered in holy panels. Amber grabbed her sister, "Emerald! What are you doing! You do realize he also now has a defensive advantage now too right?" Amber asked. Emerald may have been rash, but she had never given off this kind of anger before.

Emerald shrugged Amber off. "Tell Tox to stay out of this. And that goes for you too." Emerald said as she pressed a couple of buttons on her PET. Sure enough, a firewall appeared around all the navis, including the damaged Colonel and Tox. Both navis looked up at the blue-ish field. Tox shot a look back at Ghost who was staring down the dark navi. This didn't make any sense. It was almost as if they had forgotten they were in here!

"Ghost, what the heck are you and Emerald doing!" Tox shouted, trying to figure out a way to get the stubborn navi to stop ignoring her.

"Trying to both keep me alive and stop me from leaving. Got to say Dark Hunter, you're quite the character. Can't say I've ever met one of you who quite simply said kill me now like this," Drusk commented.

"Shut up," the blue navi said lowly as he stopped walking. He was about a couple feet away from Drusk now, "Only one of us is getting out of this mess alive."

"A battle to the death. What is the occasion?" Drusk said, with a little glee in his voice. Why couldn't he remember this navi? He seemed so bold. He would have thought he would have remembered a pest as annoying as him.

"Ghost! Stop! You're going nuts!" Tox yelled. He had never acted...wait...when he woke up from Kotobuki. He had been abnormally agitated after he had woken up. Emerald had been pretty upset too after Amber had talked to her later that day. But both had called the reaction nerves from the near death experience.

"Is he normally this way?" Colonel asked quietly, deciding to get some kind of answer.

"He can be rough around the edges but he's never been like this before." '_For the same reason I'm who I am.'_ Tox thought. Did Ghost and Drusk have some kind of history or something?

This was bad. Really bad. No they needed to get out of her before something, "Don't Tox."

"Don't stop him? Are you crazy Amber? You remember what happened last time!" Tox argued, not wanting to see her friend almost die again.

"That's why you won't help. Because I'm not sure just how clear either of them are thinking," Amber whispered the last part although Emerald was no longer paying her any attention.

Tox looked back nervously at the two navis. She didn't like this at all.

"The occasion is a reminder of what you did four years ago at the DenTech Gala Hotel," Ghost said, blade in hand.

"A reminder of who you left to watch their family burn for no reason at all," Emerald stated.

"The DenTech Gala Hotel. Hmm...oh now I remember. Some guy had done something right? Um..recover data?" Drusk mused, "Or was it something more meaningless?"

Ghost's eye almost twitched, "Midnight Blade!" The blade shined even brighter now as Ghost charged at Drusk. The navi blocked with his Dark Sword and was surprised when it only cracked. He smirked. He had shattered Protoman's sword so easily with just a Holy Sword. He wasn't paying attention anymore. He was missing weak points and merely trying to go for the kill. Good. It was easier to kill them when they incapacitated themselves with their own rage and made such rookie mistakes. Though, Drusk felt a sort of rush from this. This was his first revenge encounter. Cross that off the bucket list.

"Yes...some Dr. Something right? And then he did something with data to make it come back. Oh wait, he made the data stream dance around for no reason at all!"

"**DON'T MOCK MY FATHER!** Panel Mark! Triple Download! Double Point! Download!" Emerald's eyes were wild with anger. Her crimson eyes almost seemed like fireballs. She was actually scaring Amber. She had never seen her adopted sister so...shaken. Emerald had always had a cool yet stubborn head even with sometimes her rebel streak giving her a tad bit of a temper.

When Ghost's sword missed its target, it hit the ground so hard that it left a hole in its wake. The Midnight Blade itself had suffered some damage and little cracks had appeared along the side of it. Drusk smirked as he dodged, he was adding his NetOp's rage to his own causing his mind to be twice as clouded. A dark red aura was around the navi, showing both navi and NetOp frustration. As he turned back around, Drusk finally got a glimpse at the navi's emblem. His eyes widened; it was cracked. Granted the breaks was much larger back then, but even he remembered a wound he himself had inflicted.

The dark navi looked in shock for a while before laughing, "Now I remember you! You're that navi who tried to stop me from destroying that computer. I thought I had cut you into pieces! Which means that your operator is the little girl who was crying that night. Wait, but I thought your operator was a man? How'd you downgrade?" Drusk made a mocked gasp, "Don't tell me. He died in the fire too! Oh that's priceless! And now you two both teamed up to chase me just to get revenge for your dead father and NetOp!" He laughed, only causing both NetOp and navi to become even more infuriated.

"I'm going to kill you if its the last thing I do!" Ghost roared charging again. This time however, Drusk was finished playing around. He step sided and jabbed his elbow into Ghost's back, sending him onto the floor. As the light blue navi tried to get back up, the dark navi before him smiled. By the time anyone had realized it, Drusk had already used his next attack. He had called it forth as an almost inaudible whisper. Tox's shot had missed by the time a Dark Lance had ran through Ghost breaking his navi symbol. He really shouldn't have left the thing that open.

"Listen, I don't know how you survived deletion. But I guarantee you that you won't be surviving a second time. But first," he said, glancing at the two navis in the corner, "I think you have enough life in you to watch two more die." he said as he shoved the blue navi off the bamboo pole and watched him fall to the ground. As he continued his path, he stomped on Ghost's "hand" which caused the blade to deactivate.

"GHOST!" Tox yelled as she leveled her buster. However, the field was beginning to turn dark again as the mist began to cover the field again. There was no way she could make a shot without possible hitting him!

"Hmph, all that power and yet it still has the same kind of deactivation style as other swords. Lame," he commented as Ghost got back up. Good thing the old man had moved his System Core away from his navi symbol. Drusk had missed it by a long shot.

"Emerald," Ghost growled, the red aura still around him. She was unresponsive; still growling with anger, "EMERALD!" He called again. The lance hadn't been fun, but it at least allowed him to get back some of his head. The red in his vision was beginning to calm down a tad.

The girl shook her head slightly, as if coming out of some kind of trance "Right." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a battle chip. She dropped the firewall around the navis and turned to Amber. The brunette noticed the raven haired girl's tear streaks, "Get Tox out of there. Whoever that operator is of Colonel do the same! Geddon! SonicBoom! Download!"

Tox and Colonel disappeared, to Drusk's surprise, as the field around them began to crack and fill with holes. Drusk turned back to see Ghost standing up and holding an Air Blade in his hand. Drusk smirked, either the navi was committing to the position or trying to find a way out. The dark navi took a bow and welcomed it with open arms. He remembered the chip from an old library around two years ago. It was a standard chip that did such weakling damage and was only really used to push enemies back.

The light blue navi smirked, "Got ya," The gray blade changed to red although its matter was still the same, "You didn't think we were actually using that chip we're you? This may not kill you, but this isn't over! Sonic Cutter!" Ghost held the blade high in the air and smashed it into the ground. As the blade shattered, a giant energy wave was released and barreling right for the dark navi.

Drusk's eyes shrunk in surprise. That attack...how did he manage to disguise it? Even if his NetOp had lied about the chip, he still should have been able to detect the power of a Giga Chip! He barely had time to jack out. However when he got back to a more stable area, he realized just what had happened. His navi symbol, a skull under the moonlight, was cracked.

* * *

The four NetOps stared in disbelief at what had just happened. It was unreal; something was occurring underneath the surface of everything. And no one had known just what the heck had happened. Baryl almost didn't register the call until Chuad took his PET and answered for him. A girl, about seventeen, with brown hair appeared on the screen, "Are you Colonel's operator?"

"No, I'm just a friend. Who are you?" Chuad asked.

"Amber. Tox's NetOp. I'm just making sure he got back okay. Sorry about that. It was even a surprise to me," the girl responded.

"I noticed. But again, _who_ are you?" he asked.

"You have an address? We'll come to you."

* * *

"Amber, what the hell!" Emerald asked, after Amber got the address and the okay to go to the Command Center in SciLab.

"Dad put me in charge of you. And like it or not, we need help. It's time to tell the truth. Dad may not like it, but there are only so many standard navis he can make!" Amber said shortly and started to walk to the station.

"I'm not going!" the younger girl said. Amber looked back at her. It was getting hard to see where her irises where with her eyes as bloodshot as they were. Amber sighed as she walked back to her, "We would have gotten him. We just need a few more minutes..." she mumbled.

"No..." Emerald looked back at Amber, shocked. Her sister had never questioned her skills as a NetOp, "Your anger was disorienting Ghost. The only thing you would have gotten is a deleted navi," Amber grabbed her hand, "I won't pretend to understand what you're feeling. Dad said that you had a trouble past, but I guess this is the reason why you let him talk you into being a Dark Hunter."

Emerald looked away bitterly, "He haunts my nightmares..." Amber walked up behind her, "I can't stop thinking about how much I want to kill him. How much I want to be a navi to run him through with a blade myself. To make him feel even a fraction of what he did to me."

"What...what did he do to you?"

"He turned me into your sister."

Amber sputtered, "What? You...you don't want to be..." then she stopped herself. Emerald was her sister by _adoption_, "He turned you into an orphan." Amber took her sister and pulled her into a hug. The raven haired girl latched on, trying hard to not cry. She was muffling any attempt to let go. She couldn't lose her anger. It was all she had left.

"Come on," Amber said, pulling her to the train station. This time, she didn't refuse. _'We're going to need a lot more help than we thought. If I know Emerald, she's not going to let this go. Then again, she hasn't for all this time. Ah sis, why couldn't you tell me?'_ Amber thought sadly as the girl in her thoughts rested her head against her.

As they walked, the two were completely unaware of the conversation their navis were having, "It's become a whole new game hasn't it?" Tox asked.

"Yeah, figures. As soon as the barrier collapses, that...thing manages to show itself again." Ghost said, still somewhat steaming from the fight.

Tox frowned, not bothering to address how he knew the barrier had fallen, "I'm guessing that's who you were referring too earlier."

Ghost nodded, "His name is Drusk."

"He cracked your emblem." Tox gestured to the ring around Ghost's chest.

"He did a lot more than that. A lot more."

Tox turned to the navi next to her. She had known him for six years as a navi and two years as a Dark Hunter. And she had never once had any indication of his or Emerald's past. Come to think of it, she should have asked at some point. But what answer would she have gotten. The two of them both shut up whenever asked too many questions.

Tox softened her gaze, "Then tell me."

Ghost breathed before looking back at the navi next to him, "When we get to SciLab. I'd rather not have to repeat myself. Something tells me it's going to be that kind of night."

* * *

Ghost: Wow...that happened. Alright, so I guess next time we get a little bit more background on our Dark Hunter duo! It's kinda fun having me around as an OC but yet me and "Ghost" being so different for each other. Hmm...maybe I should get a cape...Oh, to clear up the whole emotion thing. Remember when Megaman would get frustrated if he took too many hits, he would enter a weird state of that acted like Full Synchro? Same logic here. Though, in this case, the combined frustration of both navi and NetOp distracts the navi.

Update: Friday

Something is wrong with me. My vision is back, but now I can't smell anything but fire. Oh wait...I'm in a fire. How'd I get here? And why are people fighting each other? I thought I made you all the good guys! Don't fight! Next time on **MMBN5 Disconnect: Dark Empire, Episode 8: Relate**! Ghost501 logging out!


	8. Episode 8

**Favoriters/Followers:** nayana . h . hossain (remove spaces)

**Review Responses:**

**True-inTha-Blue: **Nebula wasn't really absorbed more so that it was a program that installed itself into Megaman. So yeah, Megaman does have Nebula Gray's power. More on this later on.

**ShadowDusk94:** No prob! Well, this is the last backstory chapter so find out today! Wow...that's a coincidence. I was thinking of the word Dusk but decided not to go with the name as it was. Kinda like when I made Saria. Any Sonic Seven Rings fans? One of the many characters names there is Sharia. I just took out the h. Sometimes, that's just the way I make up names. XD

**MWSeraph:** Sorry...well actually I'm not really. The fact that the suspense is killing ya means that I'm doing my job right!

**Flaming skystar: **Well you know a little. Today you learn the rest! Time for the last backstory episode!

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest: August 30th midnight (DATE HAS CHANGED! THIS IS THE NEW DEADLINE!)**

* * *

Alright, I have deleted my forum for the very few people who posted and followed it. I just wasn't worth keeping up and why waste space. I think I will probably just issue challenges in the form of contests for now on. That being said, not sure if I said this yet, by my community has opened up to Starforce as well. Anyone who wants to help collect stories for that field just PM and I'll put ya on the roster.

* * *

**Episode 8: Relate**

"Who knew one of the most powerful navis on the Net was so good at hide and seek," Reina mumbled as she and Slur continued walking down the path. The two navis had been scouring the labyrinth like network which was the Undernet for days. Reina had had little luck trying to get the information from Drusk. Partly because the navi was busy getting Numberman to find out where Regal was, but more so because the navi wouldn't give her a straight answer.

He was always changing his directions. At first it was look for the darkest part of the Undernet. Then it was check for barred off areas. Finally it was he's somewhere in Undernet 6-3g. It was at that point when the queen realized that the guard was merely screwing with her. He really had no intention of helping her find him.

"Hmm, maybe we should split up. We've been at this for a couple of days now. Perhaps he's only wants to talk to one of us," Reina suggested as Slur shook her head.

"Provoking an attack doesn't seem wise. Besides I'd rather not explain any complications to the king when we return," Slur mused, choosing her words carefully. It was clear that the queen's lovely mood a few days ago had been given up in exchange for a more irritated one. She'd rather not know what it was like to be on the receiving end of her attacks.

"Hmph, point taken. Hub has been stressed recently," Reina murmured, "Still, it seems as if just walking around is getting us nowhere. We've checked pretty much every spot on the Undernet that we know about and we don't have the time to launch an exploration team."

Reina took another look at her guard. Apparently, there were two Dark Hunters with capabilities to destroy Dark Cores. Slur hadn't been completely debilitated, but it was clear that she was no longer at 100%. She had tried installing several programs and dark chips including Dark Fix. Nothing had cured the Hunter's poison, but it had slowed it down tremendously. Now, as they walked through the network, Reina made a point to check on her guard. As she had said, there was no point in trying create more trouble than they needed to.

"Agreed. But perhaps there is one spot worth checking," Slur said, "Beyond this area is the home territory of a deleted navi. Apparently he and his NetOp had been trying to resurrect the discarded data of navis all over the Net. When he met his end, he allowed his data to merge with the other navis and they somehow managed to create a new area in the Undernet. It's called the Graveyard Area. Perhaps our prey went there."

Reina smirked, "Good thinking, Slur. What better way is there to hide than among the dead?" The Dark Queen stepped aside and allowed her guard to lead the way. So much had happened over the time of her imprisonment in Black Earth. At least someone had been paying attention.

* * *

The room in SciLab was actually quite spacious. Much better than their own base back in End City, which really was only their house with an renovated lab for a basement. Then again, SciLab was government funded while they were...not so so much. Amber turned back to check on Emerald. The girl had gone completely silent for the most part after they boarded the train. They never tried to contact their father despite him calling a couple of times. Amber merely told Tox to put the phone on silent.

As she looked around the room, she noticed the skunk haired boy that she had been talking to earlier along with three other people. A tall man who long black hair, another boy with brown, and a girl next to him with red hair. Despite their friends attempts, the brunette and the red head both showed the true tone of the room. Tense.

Amber walked up to the man, extending your hand. He seemed just as serious as Colonel, "Hello, you must be Colonel's NetOp."

"Yes, I'm Baryl. This is Eugene Chuad, Lan Hikari, and Mayl Sakurai." Baryl said as he introduced the rest of his colleagues.

Amber smiled, "Eugene Chuad and Lan Hikari. Some of the toughest Net battlers known to the world. Well, when you were eleven and twelve anyway. An ace net battler and a world savior in the same room. I'm honored."

Chuad nodded humbly, "Thank you. But enough about the past. The question is, who are you two?" he asked.

"Straightforward huh? Well, what else should I expect from an official. I'm Amber, Amber Robinson. This is my sister, Emerald Flights," Amber said, introducing the girl to her right.

"Flights and Robinson?" Mayl asked. Amber quickly picked up that she was at her limit; something was going on behind those brown eyes of hers and Amber wasn't too sure she wanted to know what could cause a girl like Mayl to be so stressed. Then again, the boy next to her looked a bit more worse for wear than her.

"I'm adopted," Emerald answered, saying the first thing since they had left the jailhouse. Amber had tried to introduce her as a Robinson in the past. However after too many times of Emerald auto-correcting her, she eventually just referred to her with her original last name.

"Oh…" the red haired girl said, quickly shutting up.

Amber made a nervous laugh. '_Please let this go better than it is already.'_ "Anyway, we're both the operators of Dark Hunters Tox . EXE and Ghost . EXE, respectively."

"And just what exactly are Dark Hunters?" Baryl asked.

"Dark Hunters are refitted navis. Pretty much their programming has been changed to handle new types of battle functions. In Ghost's case, his is an environmental power while Tox's is more battle relevant," Amber wasn't quite sure whether or not she should drop the name of her father just quite yet. Calling him _the boss_ would just have to do for now.

"These new battle functions are pretty much in place to counter the Dark Power in the navis. Over the years, we've learned that they reform again even after a "deletion" due to a Dark Core. It's pretty much the place holder for the System Core in regular navis. So Dark Hunters are made to make sure that these dark navis are unable to continue fighting." Amber explained.

"Trying to cut off the numbers in their army? But then how long have you Dark Hunters been around? You would think that you would have been able to contain this darkness considering your power," Colonel said, remembering the double team by Dark Protoman and Dark Burnerman.

"We originally tried to. But soon enough, the darkness started to leak out of the area and soon found its way back onto the Net. By the time we realized it, it was too late. The Dark Hunter program has only been active for two years. That's when we realized that darkness had truly returned back to the Net. Oh, I'm Tox by the way," the purple navi said. Though she gave a pointed look at Colonel. How dare he imply that she was incompetent. It wasn't like she was the one getting herself manhandled by two dark navis earlier.

"Two years?" Lan asked, "Darkness has been back on the Net for two years?" He stared at the girl in disbelief.

"That's an estimate. That's when we can confirm it was present on the Net with the return of Dark Navis, but," Amber turned to Emerald, "it may have been here earlier than that."

"Nope, two years. Two damn years too long," Emerald said lowly. Amber could feel the room beginning to drop a couple of degrees. Emerald's rebel streak was coming back; but there was no way she could gauge just how reckless she would become in her current state. Amber sighed internally; she just needed to play moderator before things got out of hand. She could do this.

"Do you have any records of which dark navis are on the Net?" the brunette asked.

"Some. We imagine there are more than this but we can at least confirm that there are dark souls for Slur, Drusk, Gutsman, Sparkman, Kendoman, Videoman, Searchman, Shadowman, and Toadman," Ghost stated, "I've already retired Tomahawkman, Cloudman, and Thunderman. Tox has gotten Larkman, Gridman, Knightman, Blizman, Topman, Windman, Fireman, Burnerman, and Coldman."

"By that, I assume there are only two of you?" Chuad assumed.

Amber put a hand behind her head, nervous, "Yeaahh. A lot of people thought the boss was crazy when he was talking about darkness being back on the Net and they all refused to join. He was just _really_ persuasive with us."

"So two years and only twelve navis? With you raking up most of the kills, what's Ghost for then?" Chuad questioned.

"He's not used very much in the field," Tox said sadly. She could see why he almost was deleted in Kotobuki. He and Emerald lost so much vision whenever Drusk appeared on the scene. When she had gotten there, Cloudman had been ripped into pieces. Apparently, all the dark clouds had set Ghost off on a rampage when he thought that the clouds was Drusk's Shadow Blind move. He only calmed down when he had accidentally hit a server panel causing most of the netspace to collapse and him to be knocked out by the blast.

'_Their need for revenge really must be strong if they're not willing to use them as an asset,' _Baryl thought as he glanced at the raven haired girl. She seemed to radiate some kind of strange aura around her. It had died when she had stepped into the door, but now she seemed to be trying to regain control ever since Lan had mentioned the time since darkness escaped.

"Go back to the containment. You said that that was your first action," Chuad looked pointedly at the brown haired girl seeing that she seemed to be the only cooperative one.

"Well, as far as I know of. It happened some time ago when someone jacked into the Black Earth server. When that navi was identified, we…" Amber started.

"Which navi?" Lan asked hurriedly.

"I…" Amber was getting nervous now. The boy had a somewhat crazed and desperate look in his eyes now. She was beginning to wonder if what she sensed early was really tension. Or rather was it someone just trying to keep the door slammed shut or something that shouldn't be out. Her eyes widened for a second.

Crap, she was so stupid. She even acknowledged him in the beginning! Lan Hikari was Megaman's NetOp! Which meant that the reason he couldn't find his navi for all these years was their fault," I...I...I don't know." Amber stammered. If she told him, there was no telling how he would react.

"You're lying!" Lan said, getting in her face. Green met brown. Looking in Lan's eyes, Amber could see his gears turning. She knew he was getting suspicious of her. And perhaps, he was already coming up with the answer.

"I don't know!" She said again. She really wasn't good at lying. Even her voice was squeaking!

"Lan." Baryl said, grabbing the boy's shoulder.

"Megaman." a voice said, creating a void in the room. Lan turned his head to see the crimson eyed girl looking at him, "The navi who was trapped in Black Earth for six years was Megaman . EXE."

Lan's eyes showed nothing for a moment before flicking with rage, "Why? Why didn't you tell anyone!" He roared.

"How should I know? I'm not her father. All I do know is that he's been trapped in that network for the past six years. That barrier has been keeping him in Black Earth all this time. And it's a good thing too. There's no telling what kind of damage that navi by himself could do to the world," Emerald said coldly.

"Shut up! You don't know anything about him!" Lan said, "He's not gone! I can still get him back!"

"From the darkness? That's a riot. You think that if he wanted to come back from the darkness he would have already. Face it, he likes being in the shadows now." Emerald jeered

"You little!" Lan walked forward only to be held back by Baryl. This really wasn't the place for this. He turned back to the girl, "You have no right!"

"I don't? Maybe you're right. But then again," her eyes seem to flare. She walked right in front of him and jabbed a finger, "I don't particularly care. The point is that your navi is leading this onslaught! But in the end, I'm glad your navi bit the magic bullet. It let me and Ghost become Dark Hunters. In fact, I almost say that it was the best thing that happened in my life!"

Lan eyes grew small as the last few words came out of exited her mouth. He wasn't sure when the first punch was thrown...or the second...or the third. All he did know was that when his vision was cleared of red, both him and Emerald were being held back by the various parties in the room.

Both girl and boy looked pretty beat up for the three minute brawl they had just had. Emerald had a little blood trickling by the side of her mouth, which she wiped off. Lan's nose was bruised and looked pretty close to being broken. Ghost shook his head in his PET, "You're out of line, Emerald." The navi said. The girl's eyes widened as she shrugged off Amber and Chuad and pulled out the device.

He stared back at her hard with gray eyes, "Happy or not because of our current playing field, there isn't a reason to be happy about what happened to Megaman. We've all lost important people to us but it's no excuse for celebrating someone else's downfall."

"Lan Hikari," the navi said loudly considering the two's distance, "Despite being sorry for my NetOp's actions and your circumstance, I need to make clear one thing about our priorities. The only reason why me and Emerald are Dark Hunters is because of the navi Drusk . EXE. He's a murderer, even as a navi. He's also a powerful dark navi and ranks among the best I've ever seen; granted I never fought against people such as yourself or Chuad. This being he is a probably a prized possession of the Dark Army. And as sorry as I may be for you, know this. If Megaman tries to get in my way of deleting Drusk once and for all, I'll delete him too."

Colonel looked at the light blue navi in front of him, "You say he's a murderer?"

Ghost nodded, "Yeah. He's nothing more than a insane sadist who knows nothing but darkness and death. I've seen his work personally." He looked back to Emerald, "The point is that our fight isn't over until Drusk is gone. Once he's out of the picture, we're out of this business."

Emerald glanced back at Lan, "Sorry." She mumbled before leaving.

"Emerald!" Amber said as she watched her sister leave. She turned back to the people behind her, "I'm sorry. We'll have to continue this conversation another time. I'm sorry once again about my sister. She's going through a tough time right now." she said quickly as she tried to follow after her.

"Wait a moment, Amber," Baryl said before turning to the red haired girl, "Why don't you try talking to her Mayl? She wouldn't have gone far without Amber. The rest of us will continue having this talk."

The red haired girl nodded uncertainly before leaving to follow Emerald. Amber looked back at Baryl with confused eyes, "What was that about?"

"The only way someone like Emerald is going to open up is with talking to someone who's also had the rug torn from under her. And seeing that we just had a fight break out, I'd rather not send Lan. And not to disrespect, but as much as she is your sister, I don't think you quite understand how fragile her world really is. Plus, if she was going to tell you, she would have by now," Baryl concluded as Amber looked back at the door.

As much as she hated to admit it, she had to say...it did make sense. But as she sighed and turned back to them, she knew one thing. Just cause they were right didn't make it any easier for to get rid of the jealous feeling that Emerald may open up to someone else other than her. But, if it helped her, then she was just going to have to push that feeling away. Emerald was her sister and her well being was much to important to her.

_'Mayl...please help her.'_ she thought as she started the conversation again.

* * *

Emerald had already made it by a balcony overlooking a small park that had been built next to SciLab. This place needed a pond or something other than all these trees. Just something to break the damn monotony of the place. Seriously, she didn't know where that flower lady got the patience to look at all those plants from. But then again, maybe a pond wouldn't have been such a great idea. Even after not talking to the man in a year and a half, Emerald wasn't entirely sure if she was ready to look at another fish. She sighed as she heard someone walk up behind her, "Not in the mood, Amber."

"I guess it's good that I'm not Amber then," Mayl said quietly as she stood next to the black haired girl.

Emerald rolled her eyes, "Oh great. Look girl, sorry about beating your boyfriend but I'm really don't need a private therapy session or your input or demands for me to make a "proper" apology."

"He's not my boyfriend," Mayl answered.

"Still not interested."

"Then don't be." Mayl said, not really wanting to listen to her talk if she wasn't going to care.

Emerald cocked an eye. The girl seemed a bit to...nice to be responding in a way she would. Then again, with the doom demeanor, maybe the personality she had suspected was nothing more than the past, "Sorry, um...what was your name again?"

"Mayl."

"Oh, like Email! Huh, wonder how I forgot that one?"

"Yeah…" Mayl said through half lidded eyes, "No one's made that reference since I was four."

"Bullied?"

"Nope, just a lot of people who check email," Mayl started before biting her lip. Emerald assumed she was suppressing something when in fact she was thinking. There was no way she was going to get this girl to open up. Hell, to be honest, she didn't want to be here. She'd rather be inside. At least then, there would be a chance of figuring out whether Roll really was alive.

Somehow, as if she was reading her mind, Emerald started talking "You wouldn't happen to operate a pink navi would you?"

Mayl's brown eyes grew wide. Or maybe she might find out something interesting out here after all, "Yeah, well..until she was…"

"Taken by Megaman. I've read the file. Don't worry, I can't read minds. Just noticed the hairclip," Emerald said, pointing to the small thing in her hair. Mayl touched it; she could never bring herself to get rid of it, "I don't know if she's still alive or not, but I can tell you that she made it into Black Earth with Megaman when the place was sealed up. I don't imagine that she's quite herself anymore; but if she was strong enough she probably at least became a dark soul. Which gives you a chance." Emerald explained.

Mayl went silent for a while as she nodded, "Thanks."

"Welcome," Emerald said taking a long breath, "Look, tell Lan I'm sorry will ya? That really wasn't me back there. I just kinda lost it. I suppose it hasn't been a fun six years for any of us."

"No it hasn't," Mayl glanced back at the girl. Her shoulders were dropping. Maybe all she needed was a change in scenery, "How do you know so much about the Dark Hunters?"

"Heh, an interrogation then? Well, better than your sympathy I guess. The Dark Hunters are mostly composed of standard navis with sensors to detect Dark Power and a better battle function. However, due to this, they don't have to power nor memory space to handle the true killer Program Advances or abilities that Ghost and Tox have. So, they're pretty much our scouts."

"You still didn't answer my question," Mayl said pointedly.

"I'm getting to it Firecracker," the redhead frowned at the new nickname, "Anyway, since Ghost and I were normally left to merely watch a lot of times, we spent most of the time hacking into the files of my adoptive father while his back was turned. I should have really told him that he needs to stop making journal entries into that thing."

"Who's your father?"

"Dr. Maximus Robinson. He's an ex-researcher in SciLab. Apparently he left shortly after Lan's dad started the Navi Project. He couldn't be part of an organization who dared to mess with the delicate balance of life. In fact, apparently he predicted something like this would happen."

"I'm not following," Mayl's brow furrowed in confusion, "I know that Megaman is Lan's brother Hub Hikari, but that's about it."

"Of course, not even the father would tell the son anything," Emerald sighed, "When Hub's soul was placed in Megaman, people began to question just how long the navi would stay good. Humans have the ability to choose right and wrong, so why couldn't he is he was a human navi? This whole debate about darkness has been going on ever since he was created. Regal only escalated it with the creation of the Dark Chip."

"So you're saying that Megaman was always a dark navi?"

"Not a dark navi, but had the possibility of becoming one. In a sense, Megaman was the smallest scale of Nebula Gray you could make. Think about it. If man has the ability to do evil and then we place that ability within a navi, then the navi in turn would be able to do evil on its own accord without ever being programmed to. In a sense, his moral code could be easier to manipulate."

"But don't all navis have that ability?"

"Thanks to the emotion programming yes. But most navis System Core are inherently good. Hub started off with a Soul Core that could be either good or evil. Then you take on the System Core and you begin to see what all the chaos was about."

Mayl nodded, somewhat understanding, "So, what did Dr. Robinson do after he left SciLab?"

"He created the Black Earth network. He created it to be a trap Megaman ever succumbed to his dark side. If he stepped foot in there and the place detected that he was consumed by evil energy, Black Earth would throw up this barrier disconnecting it from the Net. It would have been too risky and easy for him to escape if the place self destructed," Emerald gave Mayl a small smile, "I'm sorry about Roll. She was never meant to be there and the barrier was supposed to be a one way trip. My father only figured out what had happened after the protocol had activated.

"How'd it break? I'm guessing that barrier was supposed to last for longer than six years."

"He thinks its the dark holes they created. They apparently work like underground links. When they were established, they weakened the barrier and caused it to break apart into what it is today. Well, guess it's not much now since it's broken. We tried to use the standard navis to destroy those links, but they kept on popping up and having that white navi, Slur, run around destroying our people. My father didn't want to run into a confrontation between he only two custom navis and her to early and so me and Amber were told to stay away."

Mayl shook her head, "It's hard to believe this. All this time and Roll and Megaman have been alive this whole time."

"I never said that she…"

"But I believe that she is. I have to." Mayl said, staring the black haired girl in the face, "I have to believe that she is alive because if I don't…"

Emerald smirked, getting what she was saying, "The order is destroyed. The scale that keeps everything in balance is tipped too far to the other side and everything falls into hell. Am I right?"

"Exactly…"

"It's funny. I spent my whole life trying to find that balance again. But, I just can't seem to do it."

Mayl looked at her, "Drusk."

"Yeah. There are times when I wish his creator a painful death."

"What'd he do to you?"

Emerald went silent for a while before looking back at Mayl. Funny, for a while, she thought she was the only one who wore the kind of eyes she was. The type when you don't hide the madness but shelf it until a point when you can't take it and then slowly let it out. Or better yet in Emerald's case, you smash it against the ground and watch as the contents cover the room.

"He hurt and killed everyone important to me. My father, Drake, and...Ghost."

Mayl looked at the girl with confused eyes, "But Ghost is in your PET."

"It's not the same Ghost. Well, it is...but not exactly. My father, my biological one, was a man named Dr. Cain Flights. He spent most of his life on Navi Core regeneration. Pretty much he was designing failsafes that would save a navi's data before deletion and then reconfigure it later once it made it back to its owner's PET. It was going to replace the backup chip. It would have been different from the logic failsafe because navis can understand death and the logic still doesn't break. He was still researching a way to make sure that bad navis wouldn't be able to come back eternally," Emerald started, unsure just why she was talking. But then again, Mayl may have been the only one who had a chance of understanding her. As much as she loved her sister, Amber just didn't understand what it was like to be so lost in darkness that the only friend you had were your own emotions. And even they could be your enemy.

"Wow, it sounds amazing," Mayl said, wondering why this program wasn't actually in anyone's PET. It would sure save people from the time limit feature that would cause the PET to lose the navi data if a backup chip wasn't inserted within ten minutes.

"Yeah, it was. Anyway, one night he had checked us into a hotel; I was six at the time. He was going to visit some investors the next day to talk about grant money and I was out of school on vacation. He wasn't interested in working with SciLab so he had to find his own money. Later than night, something happened. I never knew what, but our room had caught on fire. Actually it was the whole hotel. When we trying to escape, parts of the building came down. My father and I were separated but he told me to get out of the building as quickly as I could.

"I had almost gotten out when some of the ceiling had started to fall in on top of me. When I jumped to the side, that's when I noticed him. It was one of the hotel employees. Apparently he worked security. He had been wedged between some of beams that had fallen on top of him. That's when he asked me to come over. I don't know why, but I did. He asked me if I could watch his PET for him. When I told him there wasn't a Net Navi in it, he told me to look again.

"When I saw the System Core, I was going to tell him that I found it...but he had already passed. More of the building was coming down and so I ran for it. When I got outside, I never found my dad. It wasn't til after the smoke and wreckage was cleared that I learned that he too had died. The side he traveled had more things blocking his path and he probably couldn't have found a way out. I don't remember much else after that, just that weird numb feeling. I never knew when I had reached into my pocket the night before but by the time I looked back at the man's PET, I realized that a chip was in it.

"I took out the chip and soon the System Core had reconfigured back into the navi. I looked back at the chip and realized that it was my father's. He must have slipped it into my pocket before we had run out of the room. However, after I took it out, the chip kinda broke apart. I guess it wasn't meant to work more than once in its "experimental" phase. And I'm pretty sure you can guess the rest of that."

Mayl nodded slightly, "Ghost was the reconfigured System Core wasn't he?"

Emerald smirked as she pulled out the PET. She had put Ghost into sleep mode so that he wouldn't have nagged her about her actions to Lan, "He wouldn't talk to me for a while. He was caught up in the grief. That was until I told him about my dad…"

"_So your dad was the one he was after…" the light blue navi said, putting two and two together._

"_Hey! You talked!" a six year old Emerald exclaimed._

"_Yeah, I guess I did," he said making a light laugh, "What's your name kid?"_

"_Emerald. Emerald Flights."_

"_Flights. Yeah, that was the last name that navi was asking about. Hey Emerald, was your dad into something?"_

"_Into what?" the girl asked curiously._

_The navi scratched his head,_ "_Oh yeah right; you're young. Um, was he doing bad things behind people's back?"_

"_No! My dad's a doctor. He makes programs for navis."_

"_And where is your dad?"_

"_I don't know," Emerald said quietly, "We got separated in the fire. That's when your NetOp gave me your PET."_

"_Huh..." the navi looked down for a while before looking back at her, "Well I guess that settles it. I'm yours now. The name's Ghost. I'm your new Net Navi."_

"_Really!"_

"_Drake gave me to you for a reason. Maybe the guy just wanted to save one more person before he...well you know. I always told him to go be a doctor if he wanted to save people, but he just had to work security at a hotel. I swear I'll never understand him," the navi huffed causing Emerald to giggle._

"_You're funny." she said between laughs._

"_Well, I'm glad I finally have someone who appreciates my sense of humor!" Ghost dropped his smile when he began to think of something, "Wait...how am I even still here. Drake left his backup at home. And you don't have one."_

"_I used this chip. I think my dad made it. He was trying to revive navis by having something save them and remake them." she said proudly._

"_Somehow I don't think that's how it works exactly, but I think I get it," he looked back over himself, "Have to say it got everything right but the armor color. __The jacket is new. And aw man! It didn't get that crack that guy made!" the navi sighed as he realized his color change,_ "I'm going to miss being in red. It was so awesome!"

"_I think you look good in blue!" Emerald complimented._

"_Thanks! I appreciate it!" he said before his face turned serious. Should he really tell her? He had a bad feeling that Dr. Flights didn't make it out of the wreckage alive. He didn't want to believe it, but this feeling wasn't normally wrong. The navi took a deep breath, "Hey Emerald…"_

"Drusk couldn't take the fact that regular navis could possible have the same regenerative powers as dark navis. Apparently, he thought it as some kind of blasphemy. He was seeking out my father to destroy his research. When he tried to access the records in the hotel to figure out what room we were in but Ghost and Drake appeared to try and stop him. However…"

"Drusk stopped Ghost and found out where your room was," Mayl concluded in a heavy voice, "Wait...Regal only came out with the Dark Chip six years ago. But you said you were six when Drusk came by."

"Regal only got the idea to use a chip to reach and control more navis after him. Drusk was the first dark navi; a failure too since Regal was unable to reason with him. He saw himself as perfect and left." Emerald explained before returning back to her story.

"When they fought, Drusk somehow managed to hit everything but Ghost's System Core. Maybe Ghost had managed to protect his symbol from it cracking further or it was in a different spot, I have no idea. Anyway when he was jacked out, the rest of him was deleted. That's when Drusk started overloading the network with Dark Power. He caused the circuits to overheat and soon the fires blazed. He caused the death of Drake, my father, and everyone else in that hotel," Emerald looked back at Mayl, tears threatening to leave, "That's why I'm a Dark Hunter. 'Cause I want to make that...thing feel a small fraction of what I felt the night when he destroyed Ghost's and my life. And that's why we're going to delete him on sight."

Mayl nodded, "You know it hurts more when you keep it bottled up right?"

Emerald blinked angrily, "No one around me had anything to do with it. Why bother yell about it?"

"Because you need to. You're angry; both of you are. I get that. But if you care about Ghost, you need to stop being this angry," Emerald scoffed. So she didn't understand. Served her right to spill her guts to someone not Ghost or herself, "He's your Net Navi. He cares about you and despite his own emotions he also is in sync with yours. When you tag his anger onto yours, you both turn into a mess. I know you both want revenge but you're not going to get it if you both can't focus."

Emerald raised an eyebrow. That was new, "What ever happened to revenge isn't the answer? Or just cry about it, you'll feel better?"

Mayl smirked, "It's closure for you guys. Plus, I don't think anyone would mind whatever you two have in store for him. Just don't let it your anger take over who you are. Despite your...rougher side, you're a cool person."

Emerald blinked for a minute before cracking a smile, "You know what. I think I like you Firecracker."

"See, that was what I mean by rooughh!" Mayl said as the sixteen year old hugged her. The red head smiled for a minute, returning the gesture.

When they let go, Emerald started to walk back to go into SciLab, "I hope you guys have a plan to get your navis back and away from our fight. I'd hate to delete anyone I didn't need to." She said, crimson eyes shining.

"I think we can work on that," Mayl said walking back with her. As the two girls went back inside, Mayl couldn't help but feel a little bit of something that she hadn't felt in a long time.

Hope.

* * *

"So you were hiding here," Reina said, "So, I'm guessing you've had time to think about Hub's offer. What's your answer...Bass?"

* * *

Ghost: And this is officially the longest chapter I've written for a single story...ever. At least I think it is. Have to check some DN word counts. Anyway, this is the last backstory chapter so hurray for that! Next time, time to go see what little Ms. Reina and Slur have in store for our favorite independent navi Bass . EXE. hehehehHAHAHAHA! *coughs*

Update: Friday

*eye twitches* You! Oh, I can't wait for this next fight. You all now where this is heading and it looks like the heroes have finally decided to work together, but can our lovely queen and her poisoned guard convince our..._friend_...(gags) Bass to help their cause. Well, see next week on **MMBN5 Disconnect: Dark Empire, Episode 9: Chaos Rampage**! Ghost501 logging out!


	9. Episode 9

**Favoriters/Followers:** terratasha, Ventis

**Review Responses:**

**terratasha:** XD Well, it was the longest chp I've ever written! Think of it as a waterfall, Dr. Regal dumps darkness on the Net and in BN4 the only way to access Black Earth is through some of the deepest parts of the Undernet. Trickle down effect. Yep, Ghost and Emerald are only tied by that horrible being known as the string of fate (or better known as my mind in this case). Actually, I was wondering how far I should let that fight go on for. Decided in the end not to make it a HUGE deal and just chalk it up to a few blows on both sides. Nope, like in DNB: THHF very few people know about Hub being Megaman. He still is a SciLab navi and I find it impossible that no one knows anything other than Dr. Hikari specially if you think about what a huge project the Navi Project was. No promises made, sorry! Oh yeah...him...let's see what happens today shall we? Yeah...you're going to have to hold tight for a little more... XD They're killing everyone, even me!

**MWSeraph: **Especially after what happens today!

**ShadowDusk94: **Yeah, the Dark Hunters are sorta the anti-hero in this case. It wasn't really a matter of who was in the network, just so that Dark Megaman was contained. And yeah, people have done worse on just a hunch. Actually wasn't so much Bass's fault, but it was the same concept really. ...Opps, you are right. I did forget her spelling. I kinda just did a sound out and forgot the spelling! Speaking of Bass, find out today!

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest: August 30th midnight**

**DN News: **Hey everyone, Ghost here with a few update stuffs! First off, the later end of DN (3.5, 4, 5) are all in some way being worked on. Gav, Bass, and I are working on writing 3.5, while 4 is in the revision phase and 5 is coming closer out of the planning stage. Release dates for all of the titles have not been decided. However, if you really wanted to see the back story life between Gav and I, he has written a little expedition about our beginnings (DN1) on his profile so go check it out! And on that note, on with the episode! Thanks for your patience! fanfiction u / 3902185/

* * *

**Episode 9: Chaos Rampage**

"Get out." Sparkman said as they finally arrived and the bus rolled to a stop, "Go to the movie theater. Two blocks down. Don't try to leave, we have eyes everywhere. You will be instructed when you get to the building."

Dr. Regal, still clad in his jumpsuit orange, stared out into a world he hadn't seen in six years as he exited the bus. As he looked around, he realized the place looked old and abandoned. Buildings were ready for demolition. The pavement and road was cracked, which explained the later half of the ride. He could still feel his head ache from the amount of times he hit the ceiling.

He looked back at the bus. It was clear that he had been broken out by dark navis, but they were much more organized. Some of them seemed even more powerful than he ever imagined. But he couldn't help but catch the irony of the situation. A few years ago, he was about to plunge the world into darkness. Now, darkness was purging him back into the world. Despite being _grateful_ for the help, he didn't take too kindly to being ordered around by navis. Still, no need to provoke them.

Regal followed his instructions as he continued down the prescribed path, wondering just what in the world had he been brought into. In a matter of minutes, he found his destination. He entered the dilapidated movie theater and began to look around. It wasn't a grand place and most of it was covered in dust and grime. As he took a couple steps inside, a voice came on the speaker, "Head to the manager's office. First door on the left behind the concessions stand."

The doctor smirked as he walked. So his creation was going to both to show himself. He still carried some of Megaman's voice, but it was far different now. At least it was devoid of that hero tongue. He opened the door to the manager's office to see nothing but a computer and chair in it. He walked up to the computer and sat down in front of it. The monitor came to life as a picture of Dark Hub came into view.

"Hello Doctor, it's been a while," Hub greeted.

"It has been Dark Mega. Now, what is it that you want? If you were going to break me out of prison, you would have done so long before today," the doctor said, leaning in. He hadn't been very appreciative of the dark navi after he had gone through all the trouble of bringing him into being only to have the navi leave him and allow him to be arrested.

"That kind of disrespect isn't going to get you far with me. But you're right, I do need something from you," A program code appeared on the screen in front of him, "This is SciLab's newest creation, the Sync Program. It allows navis of all kinds to obtain the power of Full Synchro even if the operator and navi are not in sync. But it's half the strength of the real one. The program is 98% done. It just needs a few more sections of code to complete. Your job is to complete it and make it two times more powerful than the normal Full Synchro in 24 hours."

"24 hours? Even if I wanted to, that is a preposterous time schedule. And besides, why would I give you that much power? You say this works for all navis, even independent dark ones I suppose. Listen I don't know how you managed to stumble and steal this program, but you're crazy if you think I would do anything for a program. I am your master. And besides, what makes you think you can even trust me?" Regal spat.

Dark Hub shook his head, "A shame; I thought a man of your genius would understand a good deal when you saw one."

"There isn't a deal here. Why would I give you the power to fulfill my dreams? I gave you the Nebula Gray power so that you could fulfill my wishes! Instead, you destroyed SoulNet and allowed the officials to dismantle everything I ever worked on! Not exactly what I would call a good proposition." Regal growled.

Hub laughed, "Oh Regal, the deal wasn't for you to keep or have power," He snapped his fingers as the electronic locks in the room snapped shut. Regal looked around worried. This building was old right? He could just break through these barriers and… Electricity crackled around the very boundaries he was thinking of escaping from, "The deal was that you fix the program and I don't put you through the worst torment of your life. But ah well, a deal is a deal. 24 hours. Get it done. But first, how about a movie to show you what I mean by torment? Videoman?"

Hub turned to leave as a taped up navi stepped forward with a sickening smile, "Oh and by the way Regal, my name isn't Dark Mega, that useless pawn of yours. My name is Dark Hub."

* * *

Reina sneered at the cloaked navi before her. Even now he hadn't turned around to address her. Sensing her impatience, Slur put a hand on the Dark Queen before she did something rash. The last thing they wanted to do was to break down relations before they could even talk.

"Warp Wires," Slur released the yellow lines that wrapped around Bass. As she tried to pull him towards them, she realized that the navi wasn't moving. It was almost as if he was a statue.

"Looks like instead of asking for directions, we should have asked how to wake up," Reina jeered as she pulled out her bow. This was already getting tiring. She fired the arrow and it sunk into Bass. A few second later, the statue cracked into many bugs frags and scattered on the floor, "What the hell!" Reina shouted as Slur pulled back her wires.

Finally, the ground began to shake as a great power began to come from the shadows. Slur stepped back a bit; her weakened body surprised by the output of the navi coming towards them. Reina sighed as she put a hand on her hip, "Is it normal for these types to make an entrance _every _time they fight?" She commentated as Bass appeared, his very body surrounded by a Life Aura.

"Interesting, a denizen of the dark who would rather don a Life Aura than a Dark Aura," Slur pointed out.

"So, I assume you're here about that request the weakling keeps on pestering me about," Bass grumbled as he hovered in front of them, ignoring the white navi's comment. He never saw a point in the dark chips created by humans and would much rather use his Get Ability powers to harness the energy he had gathered over the years.

"Hmm, it would explain why Drusk was rather grumpy whenever he returns," Reina grumbled under her breath, "Yes. It is; have you made your decision?"

"If your group is made up of such weaklings as the one who was sent to me, then you're not even worth my time," Bass turned to leave, upset that his time was once again wasted by mere fools who didn't... He moved his head to the right as he avoided a fast arrow.

He turned to the insolent navi who dared fired at him with his back turned, "Dark Stage…" Bass raised an eyebrow as the floor was covered with eerie purple tiles, "If fighting you is the only way to help you make your decision, then so be it." Reina spoke slow as a Dark Elec Sword appeared on her hand.

* * *

"Queen Reina!" Slur called.

The Dark Queen shook her head, "If he defeated Drusk, then he will defeat you too. Plus, your energy is still being sapped by that Dark Hunter's poison. There's no point in you fighting. And he's not the type of navi who finds honor in fighting two opponents at once."

Bass roared with laughter, "Very interesting. This fight may be quick, but your tenacity and words impress me, dark soul. Very well, I will grant you the honor of fighting me. Prepare for your deletion."

"Neo Buster Shot!" Bass's buster charged a greenish light before firing many rounds all over the field.

"Dark Aura!" the purple aura came just in time to absorb the incoming attacks. Reina charged forward with her blade in hand, smiling all the way. Finally! A decent fight! Her blade was soon intercepted by Bass's own Dark Arm Blade. As the swords hit, a small blast emanated from the connection.

Reina smirked as she jumped back. Their Dark Power was clashing with the emergence of the two attacks. This was getting very interesting indeed. However, she was going to have to do something about that Life Aura if she was going to go anywhere with this fight.

Slur stood back a few paces, nervous for the outcome of the battle. Mainly because she was afraid that the Dark Queen would lose her sense of reality and be lost in the "thrill of the battle". Which would mean that she would be left to dodge any kind of incoming attacks from either navi. However, she didn't really have much of a doubt about who was going to win the match. That much was obvious.

"Dark Spreader!" a purple spread gun appeared on Roll's hand and fired several shots at the Bass.

Bass merely smirked, she had fight he would give her that. But fight would mean nothing against a navi of his power and capability, "Hell's Rolling!" Four purple blades were thrown from his hand as they collided with the Spreader fire. Smoke filled the field as the attacks collided.

However, Reina had made her move when Bass had launched his own, "Dark Lance!" Several bamboo pieces pierced the ground and shot through Bass's aura. They had managed to stab through it enough to trap him momentarily, but for some reason the aura didn't fall. Ah well, "Dark Twister!" Reina's hand turned into a fan and blasted a mini tornado at the navi. The wind was dissipating the aura while also breaking apart the bamboo poles and sending the shredded piece flying at Bass.

The navi gritted his teeth, he hadn't been expected a surprise attack. Bass waved his hand, which was now free from the Dark Lance and as the wind began to calm, he took care of the rest. Even managing to send a bit of the wreckage back at the purple navi. Bass summoned the head of the Gospel beast, "Gospel Breath!" The dog head opened its mouth and unleashed a devastating flame that started to engulf the area. After a few seconds, the Dark Queen could be seen walking through the flames, her own shielding gone as well.

The two stood and looked at each other. Finally Bass broke the silence, "Well, I'm impressed. Your messenger was barely standing this far into the battle. You fight with skill rather than thinking that darkness is your ally."

Reina laughed, "I don't think darkness is my ally," she clenched her fist as the aura reappeared around her. One of the dark stage panels had disappeared and returned back to its normal gray tile color, "My husband and I are darkness incarnate. Picking a fight with me was your worst mistake."

Bass sneered as the navi smirked upon her approach, "Now, God of Destruction, for my next trick, I will teach you the true limits of your mortality." Two wands appeared in her hands as she threw them both into the ground. They sunk in tightly into the ground, "Dark Meteor!"

Bass looked up to see several purple fireballs descending upon him. He raised his palm as a ball of purple energy formed in his hand, "Darkness Overload!" he yelled, launching the ball and destroying the incoming attack. However, defending himself had left him open for yet another attack.

"Grrhh…" he growled as streams of data came from an open wound.

Reina looked lovingly at the Dark Elec Sword in her hand and turned back around to give Bass a sarcastic look, "I'm sorry. Were you busy?"

"You little!" a different colored energy began to form in his hand now. Green this time, "I'm beginning to have enough of you! Earth-"

Reina ran past him, this time wrapping her whip around his arm with a tight SNAP! She pulled the navi forward, causing him to tip over. Reina grabbed her whip, "Dark Thunder!" The attack flowed through the "rope" and surged into Bass, momentarily paralyzing him.

Going with the flow of things, she ran up and socked Bass in his gut before sending him spiraling after a kick. As the cloaked navi stood up, he could feel some of his movements slow. What the? When did she give him a bug? Alright, it was enough of this!

As he hovered in the air, he began to feel the same irritation that he had felt years ago fighting the blue bomber. She carried his strange strength. Why? What was possible giving her this edge? She didn't fight like any other dark navi. Ever navi had a somewhat telepathic movement before committing to an attack. One just had to pay attention to it. With this one, her moves seemed almost unpredictable. She fought like him. Maybe a bit more physical, but his style was still there. The need to fight for someone. Despite not having a NetOp, he could feel that connection to someone in her and it was showing out on the battle field. And that burned Bass more than anything else. It wasn't the fact that he was being beaten that was pissing him off. It was the strange color of blue that he was beginning to see that was making his blood boil.

"I won't be beaten by some puppet! Gaia Overload!" He fired the orb quickly at the navi and then used what mobility he had left to surge into the wreckage.

The blast had knocked the Dark Queen off her feet and had blown through her aura to actually inflict damage on her. She laughed silently to herself and she landed on the ground. The blast had left her damaged and somewhat disoriented. She was even a little dazzed. Well what more could she expect from the God of Destruction. Fitting title really. He really made a mess of this area.

Bass grabbed the fallen navi by the neck and raised her up in the air. Reina made a strange noise from the sudden movement, "And now...I'm finally going to make understand what makes you tick. Though I must thank you, seeing you fight just gave the motivation to search the Net for Megaman again. And then when I find him, I'll kill him too!" He grabbed at her emblem, preparing to take her abilities with his Get Ability. That was until she started laughing out loud. She put her hand gently over his before looking at him with her purple red eyes. Her fingers pressed painfully into his hand. One word screamed in Bass's head.

Trap.

"Dark Recovery," she smirked as Bass howled in pain. Something was wrong with him; he could feel it. His power or rather acquired powers were going crazy inside of him. He was losing control. The navi stumbled backwards as Dark Reina climbed back to her feet. She was still hurt since she had directed the chip into his system, but the damage she needed to do had been done. She looked at her hand and she felt a tingle in it beginning to extend from her fingers to the rest of her body.

"Three bugs. I must applaud you for your durability, but you got too into the battle. Something I've been learning to control. That last bug went straight for your Get Ability program. Instead of taking my power, I seem to have gotten yours. But all this is useless to me with you," the Dark Queen walked forward. Bass pulled his buster, which Reina merely hit him with her antennae. The buster couldn't be used if it had been slashed in half, "Hub said to persuade you and if I couldn't get you on our side, to get rid of you. And you kindly told me to screw off just now. Guess what kind of mood I'm in?"

Bass barely reacted as her hand formed into a fist punched him in his emblem. The symbol cracked before it shattered on the ground, "And in case you didn't notice, I'm not just a show queen," her hand turned into the Elec Blade and it pierced through Bass. The navi dissipated into data as Reina stole the Get Ability program from his very System Core.

Reina's boots changed to a gold while her gloves turned silver and got purple blades on the sides. She even gained a brown sleeveless vest. Her whole body suit turned into a deep black as a purple line ran up both sides of her body. Reina smirked, dismissing the form. So she had gained a Cross. Today had been a productive day after all.

Slur nodded, just as expected. Well, not the cross but the win, "Shall we head back?"

"Yeah, no point in hanging around here. We've got much more important things to do."

* * *

"It s obvious what they're trying to do right? I'm not just under thinking it?" Tox asked as everyone huddled around a table.

"Nope, it's actually kinda scary really," Chuad noted, "They wanted the Sync Program in order to gain more power, but they didn't have an easy way in. Protoman got in, disguised, and stole the program. However, it was incomplete; but very close to completion. 98% done actually. The confusing part comes to Regal. Sure he could probably finish the program, but the true question is whether or not they can trust him to finish the program."

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up," Ghost said, "So we know they've got everything they need. The only thing they don't have is time. We know where their front door is, but they have back doors all over the Net. Even if we knocked, they could just open the door and leave out the back exit. Then we be at square -1."

"Is that even a thing?" Tox asked.

He shot a glare a Tox, "Don't question my methods."

"What if we just use the standard Dark Hunters to cover the exits?" Mayl suggested.

"Wouldn't work. I've seen standard _navis_ fight better than those guys. If two or more Dark Navis run out of a single exit, they'll be screwed," Emerald said, shooting down the idea.

"What if we get Dad to seal the outside, you know prevent them from leaving the area?" Amber explained.

"But then that locks us out in the case of a trap, ambush, or simple overpowerment. Remember we don't have many navis to our disposal. Knightman and Tomahawkman said they would assist, but the others have decided to opt out of the fight." Colonel stated.

"That's bad. We could've really used Shadowman and Toadman's help…" Lan said glumly before he was nudged by Baryl. The boy sighed, "...and Numberman."

Mayl smiled, genuinely. Since Emerald had come back in and pretty much demanded that they get a battle plan going, the overall mood in the air had strengthened. Maybe it was the returned hope that their navis were able to be saved. Maybe it the fact that now, people were once again helping them again to fight for their cause. Mayl didn't know; she was just glad that for once she could forget, truly forget, the case of pills in her pocket.

"So the direct option then," Baryl said, "There was a report a bus being seeing taking Dr. Regal away from the scene. When the information was released, someone actually called in saying they saw it heading for Kotobuki."

"What is it with that place and things happening in it?" Ghost grumbled before he caught on to something, "Oh no. No, no, no. Don't tell me you had a plan all along and was just waiting for your turn!"

Baryl merely smirked, "I've already directed Knightman and Tomahawkman to look into it. Once they're done, they'll join us at the rendezvous. The three of us will go ahead and lead the attack. We'll have the standard Dark Hunters set up a perimeter using Life Auras to create a wall around Black Earth. Some of the official navis will then go through the dark links and join the fight. Amber, I need you to contact your father and tell him this information."

"Uh, yes sir!" Amber said next to a grumbling Emerald, "You really could've told us this an hour ago…" The red eyed girl said.

"Our raid will commence tomorrow whether we find Regal or not! Get some rest tonight everyone. Tomorrow will be a long day on the Net." Baryl said, wasn't just six years ago that he had given such a similar charge to Team Colonel?

"Yes sir!"

* * *

"Someone's looking better than when they left," Hub commented as Reina come through the link. She almost seemed as if she was glowing.

"Well, it's not every day you take the God of Destruction's power." she smirked, giving him a kiss.

"I see. He refused."

"Yep. He only wanted to work with us if we were strong enough to defeat him. Of course, defeat for me means delete but," she brought her voice to a whisper, "I heard he gave Drusk a beating when we sent him a while back."

"That would explain his horrible mood," he said. Though to be fair, the navi seemed to never be in a good mood if he wasn't deleting something or causing mass chaos. Dark Hub looked back at the screen he had opened to see Regal working furiously.

Reina's eyes widened as she noticed the open window, "I knew you said you were going to break him but…"

"Implicitly. You know what a wild imagination Videoman has."

She shivered. Nope, she had promised herself to even talk to the navi after he had showed her one of his films. She may have been a dark navi, but even she had some standards, "Unfortunately, crushed for time are we?"

Hub nodded, "With the attack on SciLab and the jail and the program being so obvious, it's only a matter of time before they figure it out. I just hope Regal can get it done. Until then, Drusk! Slur!" he called as the two navis appeared in front of him, "Start issuing out the order for everyone to prepare for war. Those Dark Hunters are going to come back soon. And Drusk...make sure that loose cannon does not do anything critical to this. I see that crack on your emblem."

The dark navi nodded, but growled under his breath as he and Slur left Black Earth 6.

Reina looked back at Hub, "It's come down to this...hasn't it?"

"Yes, my dear. Yes it has."

* * *

Ghost: Ah cliff hangers. Well, you guys know what's happening next! The vest design idea for Bass Cross role is BalanceM88's idea. I just used the Bass Cross Megaman Design for the rest of it. So, Reina killed Bass...excuse me while I celebrate. Oh and do I see Lan and Mayl's characters beginning to snap back to normal? Hope does many strange things, even to cause changes in the depressed. Though Mayl was kinda the more depressed one, Lan was just more obsessed.

Update: Friday

Battle Plan! Set! Execute! It's time to bring this fight to the dark doorstep, but can our heroes stand up to Slur, Drusk, and the other dark navis? More worriedly, will Ghost and Emerald lose it again? Time will tell next week on **MMBN5 Disconnect: Dark Empire; Episode 10: I've Got 99 Problems and You Ain't One!** And on that note, Ghost501 logging out!


	10. Episode 10

**Favoriters: **MWSeraph, darkhaseo90

**Review Responses:**

**terratasha: **Well...it's not happening this episode...but next week will have the first interaction between Dark Navi and NetOp! So stay tuned!

**MWSeraph: **Yeah, may Alpha have mercy on their souls. They WILL need it. Kehehehehe...I'm evil.

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest: Aug 30**

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**Ghost Announcement!** I'm now on Tumblr! mcghost501 . tumblr

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**DN Announcement:** So after some long talks between the three of us, the decision has been made to move DN3.5 to after DN5 and not in between 4 and 3. Which means that the next DN release will be 4. Note, the story hasn't been canceled; but we're going to have to move it so that the timeline and event line remains intact (so pretty much delayed). Sorry bout the run around and the ups and down. But yes, it will be done. Just not until after the mainstream stuff is done. Kinda like the actual BN title except the crossover events actually happen after 5.

Since I feel bad about this, I will go ahead and release the title to the next DN to you guys (I would give you part of a chapter but it's not finished in that regard yet...). Next DN title is **_Megaman Double Network 4: _****_Corrupted Sickness._** Release Date, sometime in the fall. Once again, sorry. It's not completely bad since the story is only being pushed back...but still. It's not my favorite thing to do since I feel like I may be playing with some people's feelings a tad.

* * *

**Episode 10: I've Got 99 Problems and You Ain't One!**

"Looks like today is going to be one hell of a day," Ghost said as he walked into the Undernet. He and Tox were following behind Colonel who lead the direction to Black Earth. The other navis were setting up the other locations that Dr. Robinson had directed them too. The two Dark Hunters were fairly certain they knew where the main entrance was but had decided to let the swordsman take the lead. After all, as they later realized, the officials had put up some security around the area overnight which would have been annoying to get through on their own.

"Yep, I can't believe it. Our goal could be reached as today!" Tox said excitedly. Ghost smiled, it wasn't too often that Tox got incredibly happy like this. Normally, she went for a bit more of the tough girl approach, but two years was a while to be doing something like this.

"Yeah…" Amber said, somewhat happily. She could still hear her father's voice in her head from the night before. Geez, now she knew how Emerald felt.

"Ah come on, sis. Telling the old man couldn't have been that bad," Emerald responded rolling her eyes.

"You weren't there when he threatened to ground me for the rest of my natural life," she said dryly.

"Aren't you going to college in like a few months? It's not like he can do anything to you if your not even in the house." Emerald noted.

"It's the thought that counts!" Mayl laughed softly in the background as she, Lan, and Chuad were watching the navis from a monitor. The two girls reminded her of another certain other sibling pair. She looked over at Lan who was staring intently at the screen. Hopefully today would be the day.

"Easy you two. There's no more time for games," Baryl scolded. Both girls looked apologetically as everyone refocused their attention.

"Hey what about those other two navis? I thought they would've track Regal down by now." Ghost said as they started to branch off into a deeper part of the Undernet. C-Sliders appeared in front of each of them as they continued their trek.

"They should've tried to free him by now. They'll be with us soon," Colonel replied.

"It's the soon part that worries me. We do not have enough people, even with all these extra navis, to take on an army of the dark navis. We've deleted some, but there's always more where that came from and then there's Drusk, Slur, Megaman, and possibly Roll," Tox looked down on the ground as the reality of the situation began to set in. Sure, Slur would have been weakened by now but she had still gotten trounced by the white navi. This was not going to be easy at all. Then again, when was it ever?

"Geez," the girl navi looked back up at her friend who was holding his hands behind his head, "From happy to sad in 2 seconds. Bad timing for ya, Tox?" the navi asked.

The comment _almost _passed over her head…"YOW!" Ghost said nursing his head from the blow as an embarrassed and blushing Tox refused to look at anyone. It hurt more since he actually didn't have a helmet to shield him from the girl navi's blow. She was happy that he was back to normal compared to the more brooding one yesterday, however that normally meant he was in a more joke cracking mood, "Alright, alright; bad joke. Bad joke! All I was trying to say was that we don't need all this negative realism crap. Today is going to go just as planned. We're going to storm Black Earth. I'm going to delete Drusk and you'll take care of Slur. We'll save Protoman, Roll, and Megaman. And then we will destroy all traces of darkness on the Net."

"Hmph, that's quite a change from threatening to delete anyone who got in your way yesterday. You're actually thinking about the whole picture," Chuad commented, his eyes closed.

"Hey!" Ghost snapped back, "I can think about the big picture…." he grumbled as he stuffed his hand into his windbreaker's pockets and they continued walking.

Emerald merely smiled before looking back over at the red haired girl. Everyone seemed a lot happier compared to yesterday. Hell, even she felt better than yesterday. Sure, her heart was racing in preparation for her revenge, but her anger really wasn't blocking her judgement this time around. In fact, it was helping it. Emerald smiled as she remembered her conversation with Ghost last night.

"_When we fight Drusk, I don't want you to fight with me," Emerald said to Ghost in the confines of her room. Amber said she would take responsibility for telling the officials and go tell the old man herself, leaving the raven haired girl alone with her navi. What Mayl and Amber had told her was beginning to get to her. She wasn't going to be able to fight with Ghost. Not the way she did earlier today and in Kotobuki._

"_Huh? What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Ghost said back, completely confused. This was new._

"_I mean," she took a breath, "I don't want you to fight completely on my behalf."_

_Ghost raised an eyebrow, "I'm still not following. I thought we both wanted revenge on that creep."_

"_I know. And I do; but...I've already hurt you once. I'm not going to make that mistake again." The girl said putting the PET on the stand next to her bed._

"_Look, I already told you I don't care about the fact my emblem is cracked and I don't have a helmet anymore. My System Core is moved away from the symbol to the base of my neck so that even if someone hits it I won't die. And plus, I like the jacket." he said, sticking his hands in the pockets for good measure._

"_I know, but if I hadn't pulled that chip out early; well, maybe all of your data would have recovered. Instead, you have that jacket that's keeping you safe when you're capable of defending yourself." Apparently, her father had made a failsafe feature in side of the program in case all the data could never be recovered. It would create some kind of apparel that would help the navi out. In Ghost's case, his battle function was screwed up. His default weapon was gone and he had a hard time switching weapons, causing them to glitch and stick around to be used multiple times. They had managed to use the latter to their advantage with the Program Finisher, but still it was the fact that he was still scarred because of her. The jacket allowed the Clear Battle Chip to remove previous chip data and thus allowed Ghost to use more chips._

"_Yeah, but this thing is like...the hardest material on the Net. Nothing damages it! I'm just happy it doesn't feel that way. It's not like it slows me down any. Plus, there wasn't anyway you could've known that your dad put a chip in your pocket. You weren't thinking when you put it into the PET, but I'm glad you weren't."_

_Emerald nodded slightly,_ "_Same, but that's why I don't want you to fight with me. I want to fight with you."_

"_And...now I'm lost again."_

"_We're both angry, but somehow you've managed to contain it a lot better than I have."_

"_Some may argue that point, me included," Ghost said back._

"_Well, who's idea was it to put a firewall around the Net area?"_

"_Who went along with it?"_

"_Who's the operator?"_

"_Who's the Net Navi?"_

"_Who's-"_

"_Alright, just stop. This is getting us no where. Look, we're both equally wrong for letting our anger stop us from fighting Drusk. So next time, let's just promise to check each other," he smiled, "Instead of one of us fighting for the other, let's just fight. The revenge is the main course of course, but let's just make sure we remember that there a whole meal to eat out there."_

_Emerald smiled back, "Sure. Promise," her stomach rumbled, "And now you made me hungry."_

"_Hey at least you can eat. The only thing I have around here is coffee and bug frags."_

"_How do those taste?"_

"_Let's just say I've had things that make the old man's meat loaf pie look and probably taste like heaven."_

_Emerald held back a noise and the bile that was trying to rise up in her throat. That was almost her non-existent lunch, "Don't joke…" She moaned as Ghost laughed from the safety of his PET._

Emerald turned back to the monitor as the three navis were approaching the dark hole. This time, they were ready.

* * *

"And all the preparations have been made?" Hub asked as he prepared to leave.

"I checked with Slur and Drusk today and both of them said that they were ready to go. They'll distract them while we head over and collect that program," Reina said following close behind him.

"When we leave Black Earth, I need you to go and start rebooting some of the systems. It will take a while since the place hasn't been used in years, but-"

Reina silenced him with a fast kiss, "Just leave it to me." Hub smirked as he hugged her. Reina rolled her eyes, "And I thought I was the one with problems with acting nice."

"You are, but maybe I have some too." he said as he and Reina walked towards a newly forming dark hole, a new back door. One that no one would no about until they had already fled to coop.

* * *

Outside of Black Earth 6, dark navis were lining up. Drusk sneered. Sparkman at least should've been back by now. He had received the report that Regal had started working faster than ever after Videoman had a chance to show him his world. In fact, he had been almost close to done. So then, why weren't they here?

Slur walked over next to him, "With the exception of that latest and main exit, they've got all of them covered. And it won't be long until they learn of the King's and Queen's exit either."

"Then, we'll just have to kill them quickly," he growled, more irritable than ever.

Slur looked at him, "Still couldn't recover from that crack could you?"

"It's not important."

Slur watched him as he walked away to go address the other dark souls, "Sure it isn't." Though she understood the sentiment. The purple one's poison was even worse today, almost as if it was adapting to all the measures they had taken to slow it down.

Drusk walked ahead of her and stopped in front of his troops. There were a few Heel navis still in the ranks that really only did small tasks, but any help would be better than none, "Today is a good day...to kill. Your mission is to destroy any navi who dares to step foot on these unholy grounds. Remind them that we dark navis are superior to them in every way. Remind them that there precious bonds to mankind are nothing more than the fairy tales that we shall read to the future generation of dark souls. Corrupt! Destroy! This is your purpose as dark navis! This is the purpose of the dark soul! This is-"

He almost finished his speech as the room suddenly began to turn hot. Dark navis jumped back as more and more fire was begin to swarm around them. They got into a huddle. Drusk was aware of Slur on his right and Protoman on his left. His eyes narrowed as the flames died down to reveal many many standard navis. In the front were three customs, the two Dark Hunters and the one known as Colonel . EXE.

"Knock knock!" the purple one said, her burner morphed back into her buster. The one holding all of the poison needles…

"Surprise, bug frag!" Ghost smirked still holding his Hell's Burner, though he gave a quick sneer to Drusk.

"Today is a good day," Colonel said, pointing his sword, "Which unfortunately means a bad one for you. Surrender now!"

"I'll be damned before I let you overtake us!" Drusk growled stepping forth.

"Good. Then I'll personally send you to cyber hell," Ghost said. He nodded to Colonel and Tox.

Tox shot him a thumbs up, "Do what you have to do. We'll take care of the rest."

"Darkness! Attack and show them we shall always overtake the dark!" Drusk roared as his battalion began to move forward.

"Let's knock him down a peg, partner! Battle Routine! Set!" Emerald said as she inserted two battle chips and Ghost started running.

"Execute! Air Blade!" Ghost said pulling out the blade.

* * *

He wasn't sure if he and Drusk started the fight that erupted after. He was well aware though, that Colonel had taken on Protoman and Tox had engaged Slur. He was also hoping that they wrapped this up before the dark souls realized that half of their "force" was in fact a punch of cleverly coded V-Dolls.

Ghost raised his blade, slashing Drusk's own, "I must say, out of everyone I've killed you've been _the_ most annoying I've ever been able to not kill."

"Glad to be," he parried the strike, pushing him back as Emerald downloaded the Holy Blade. The yellow blade glowed brightly in the dark atmosphere in Black Earth, "Just as long this tale ends with you deleted! How's that crack treating ya?"

"Don't feel a thing!" Drusk roared as he started swiping madly. Who did this navi think he is? He damaged perfection! He was a dark navi! The pinnacle of fighting combat and yet this little navi cracked his emblem with one attack! Granted he hadn't been expecting anything much from the navi, but still.

"But I know you do! How'd it feel to know that you couldn't do anything as the roof collapsed on your NetOp? You know, I stuck around a bit to watch him suffer," Drusk jeered. Ghost roared at him as he fired a wave of holy energy from his sword.

"Ghost!" Emerald said, trying to calm down the navi, "We're in this together. Don't let him get in your head!"

"Just one punch. That's all I want right now," He growled quietly.

"Then let's give him one! Data Clear! Ice Glove! Elec Glove! Download!" the two swords disappeared as the gloves appeared on Ghost's hands.

"Emerald...what about the finisher?" Ghost asked.

"Relax, I've still got chips left. Besides, you wanted to punch him right?"

"Man…" he said as Drusk charged forward. The electricity crackled in his hand, "I love being your Net Navi!" Ghost dodged the attack and sent the punch right into his gut. Drusk coughed as he staggered back before Ghost delivered a cool left hook, freezing the navi's face. Drusk staggered back as the block of frozen water tempted to tip off his balance.

However, the navi punched at his own face, destroying the ice. He gave Ghost a cold look with his dark eyes. He had never hated a navi this much before. He had destroyed this navi and yet he had come back to life. Thus insulting him by saying that these normal navis could do the same that a dark soul could. Then he had cracked his navi emblem. And now he was punching him! "Tell me Net Navi, what's your secret? How are constantly coming back to give me grief when you should be nothing more than a fragmentation of my memory!"

Ghost merely laughed as his battle function was cleared again and a purple-orange Custom Blade appeared on his hand, "You should really stop leaving the job half done, Drusk. You get repeat business in your line of work."

"What do you mean half done! I cut you into data streams!"

"Yeah and by the way, that actually hurt!" Ghost swung the blade hard, cracking it against the navi's own Dark Sword but broke both weapons in the process, "You destroyed my frame data but Drake had already jacked me out! My System Core was still intact and dying when it got back to the PET. That's when Emerald found me. Dazed, she put in the only chip that could save my core from falling apart. But your Dark Power had already tainted some of it. The program rejected the data as corrupted and was working on correcting it when Emerald took the chip out."

"And let me guess, your memory was still intact…" Drusk grumbled.

"What was your first guess?" Ghost asked as his data was cleared once more and his hand changed into a buster a fired a spread shot, "Anyway…" he said as he watched him dodge the attack and sprint for him, "It makes no sense explaining stories like this to you because you just won't get it!"

Ghost disappeared before Drusk could swing with a newly made Dark Sword and impact the ground, "And why wouldn't I? What is so great about you that it trumps me? A dark soul?"

"Easy…" Emerald started, "Your only goal is to destroy and proclaim that darkness is the most perfect thing. You perfected using it and destroyed anyone who threatened that perfection. But you forgot one thing. When you start looking towards the clouds in the sky, you tend to forget how close you are to the edge! Data Clear! Aura! Download!"

A silver aura surrounded Ghost as he grabbed the Dark Sword in his hands. It was then that Drusk could see the faintest of rings around him. He growled as he recognized the tint. So many times navis had tried to activate this power to beat him and now this ghost of the past was actually using it, "You've….you've been fighting in Full Synchro this whole time!" Wait, every time he was took on a new chip when both hands were full his data was cleared by his NetOp. Did that also apply to his Full Synchro?

"Hey, no one said anything against it," Ghost said, kneeing him before throwing him into another dark navi. He looked behind him to see Slur behind him. Apparently she too was being given a hard time by her opponent. He could see several needles embedding themselves into her body. The navi's poison was wearing her down. He turned back to Ghost.

No...kill him first. Then help Slur. As he got back to his feet, a silver blade appeared on Ghost's hand, "SonicBoom! Download!"

"Dark Blade! Shadow Blind!" the whole area was engulfed in thick darkness. As he charged, Ghost blocked the hit.

"I thought you realized this," his gray eyes glowing, "This darkness doesn't affect me. I should let you know, my own power as a Dark Hunter is different from Tox's. I don't kill you with a default; my ability is my vision. I can see fine in both light and dark. Blinder and invis chips of any sort don't work on me!"

Drusk's eyes widened. He had assumed the first time had been a lucky block. Ghost shoved him back, "Time yet?"

"Yep, time to go all out! Program Finisher! Invis! Program Advance! Dragon's Blade!" a fierce red and blue blade on Ghost's hand as he swiped in front of him, some of the dark fog moving out of the way.

"How...you…"

"So, you remembered my original blade? I lost it after being recovered but the old man managed to upgrade it and turned it into a Program Advance. I don't need the Midnight Blade to delete you. This is all I need to kill you!" Ghost said as he charged forward.

Drusk laughed as the navi came to "end" him. He would just reform back in a few moments after he cut him. It was pointless! And when he came back, he would seek out this navi and kill him right in front of his NetOp. He was tired of this insolence! Just like the doctor! All these humans believed he was wrong! But he was perfect! He was death incarnate! And one day, when his back was turned, he would kill the King and throw that useless Queen down into the pit of the legendary Cybeasts! He would stand alone as ruler! All he needed was the chance!

"You forgot one thing! I have a stake in this too! Holy Stage! Dark Trap! Download!" Emerald yelled as the ground glowed yellow. Drusk eyes widened as he felt something weird creeping into him. These weren't holy panels. No...they were some kind of...conversion panels! Drusk yelled as the Dark Trap activated. He could feel his Dark Core turning into a System Core. The Holy Stage was keeping him from reaching the infinite source of darkness while the trap was changing the very way he lived. No...no! If this continued he wouldn't be able to reform!

"This is for Drake, Dr. Flights, Emerald, me, and everyone else you've hurt! Prepare to be deleted once and for all!" Ghost yelled as he brought the blade back and punched Drusk straight through with it. When Ghost struck, he had stabbed the navi straight in his System Core. Drusk screamed as his data fragmented and disappeared into nothing. In one foul swoop, he had been disgraced and forced to become a fallen angel of death. And fallen angels didn't come back...ever.

The dark mist dissipated seeing that its master was no longer present. Ghost smirked as the Full Synchro disappeared and he fell to his knees. Staying in Full Synchro that long had taken it completely out of him. They had only guessed that would work. But hey, didn't know until you tried right?

"Emerald!" Amber screamed as she watched her sister slump against the wall.

Mayl came over, concerned, while Lan and Chuad looked on. Baryl gave a glance but was more concerned with the ongoing fight between Colonel and Protoman. "I'm fine," Emerald mumbled tiredly. She had been as much affected by the energy drain that Ghost had been. It was a few moments before she started laughing. A few seconds later, she looked up at everyone wearing a smile. She looked exhausted and her face was wet, but Amber smiled back. Emerald was happy. Really happy, "It's over." Amber hugged her sister tightly as her euphoria became her own.

Emerald had asked Amber to punch her if she even thought that she was losing her cool earlier that morning. Of course, the request lead to her finally telling Amber the full side of the story. Amber had tearfully agreed. Her sister was a lot stronger than she thought; and she was right, she wouldn't have understood her. Amber had been more optimistic about her parents' divorce. Granted they had both lost a parent, but maybe that's why they both melded together. Still though, Amber was glad that Emerald could finally be at peace.

"I'm impressed," Ghost heard as he saw a purple hand in front of him. He smirked and grabbed it as Tox hoisted him up to his feet, "Staying in Full Synchro for that long and on your first go. I'm highly impressed."

"What can we say; we're rebels. So what happened to snow flake?" Ghost asked. Tox gestured to groaning navi behind her. Slur looked so bogged down it surprised Ghost that her data hadn't already collapse, "Too many Tox Needles. Though she did get in a few good hits."

Ghost raised an eyebrow as he looked at how battered she was, "If that's a few then did you go into a washing machine before you walked over here?"

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Alright, so she gave me a beating. The point is that's another one down. Tomahawkman and Knightman should up just in time to take some of the pressure off of us. The other Dark Hunters are beginning to poor in. They surprised me; never seen them fight so hard."

"They can fight?"

Tox shrugged, "Maybe all they needed was positive reinforcement. Then again, when you have a royal knight charging into battle for you, it changes things."

"Don't tell me you're crazy about him already? Geez, first the mood swings and now the attraction. If you don't stop, someone is going to think you're-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll be sure to take that element out of your code myself."

"Alright fine," he said looking away, "Just tell me if it's a boy or a girl."

Tox blushed furiously, "You!"

"HEY!" Colonel roared, snapping the attention of both Dark Hunters. He had barely gotten Protoman into a headlock and the struggling navi was making hard for him to hold him, "If you two are done, I'd like some help curing Protoman!"

"Oh right, that is still happening. Sorry, just killed my greatest enemy. Not quite sure what to do with myself yet. I'm sure I'll be back to normal in a couple of minutes," Ghost said as Tox rolled her eyes and fired a yellow needle into Protoman. Dr. Robinson had managed to give her a type of weapon that hopeful should reverse the effects of the dark soul this morning. However, it would only work on navis with a backup version of them saved in a PET device. In other words, it was only for Protoman, Roll, and Megaman.

Protoman slowly stopped struggling as his color began to lighten. In a few moments, he had gone from a crimson red to his normal shade, "What? What happened? My head," Protoman groaned as Colonel released him. Out of the corner of his ear, Ghost could hear Slur snarl. Good, she needed to be knocked down a peg or two.

"Protoman!" Chuad said, relieved that his partner was back.

"I've got this," Ghost said before anyone else could speak, "You got knocked out, turned into a dark navi, almost strangled, and now you're back to normal."

"...You need therapy," Tox grumbled as she facepalmed herself.

Ghost narrowed his eyes as he shook his head and turned his attention to the white navi. Tox's poison looked pretty close to deleting her as it was already. Ghost walked over, "Hey what's up? Care to tell us where your boss went to? About this high? Used to call himself Megaman?"

"Screw off…"

"What a bad choice of words," Tox said, pulling back out her buster, "You know I'm the only one who can possible get you fixed right? You really don't want to tell me what I don't want to hear. You know Ghost, I'm beginning to wonder why we didn't just do this sooner. The other dark souls fell because they were weak. Though it's not like we let most of the navis have a one use battle chip with a Tox Needle for everyone." she smirked. Ghost scoffed. So that's how the standard navis won. Tox Needles, effective for putting any dark soul down. Though, he didn't imagine that every navi had managed to hit their opponents on the mark. Still though, he was a little jealous. He couldn't poison dark soul. He could only see in the dark and light. Not all that impressive.

"Your armies have been weakened. They can't fight no matter if they reform and neither can you," Colonel said, "It is best for you to give up now."

"Plus, I mean wouldn't you like to do something good before you die?" Ghost chimed in.

If she wasn't so weak, she would have wrapped a wire around everyone's neck. Curse this poison and it's effectiveness. "You can forget me talking," she said painfully, "Just know that the Dark King and Queen have already gone and you'll be under our rule before you know it." Slur groaned.

"Thanks. That was all we needed," Tox said as she watched the navi dissipate. A few seconds later, a loud explosion was heard throughout the area, "Good they set the minibombs. At least they won't be reforming back."

"Wait, you destroyed them spawning without deleting their core? But how?" Colonel asked.

"Each charge was made out of the same material that created the Holy Stage. Each area is now scattered with enough of that power to distort the darkness. Pretty much, it'll be really hard for them to reform and impossible in a few minutes. That was just the first round. We may not delete this place, but by the time were done this place won't be called Black Earth anymore." Amber said proudly.

Emerald staggered back to her feet. The Full Synchro had taken a bit more out of her than she thought, "Now we just need the old man to find out what link just opened up and track the dark energy. It'll lead us right to 'em."

* * *

A few seconds later, Emerald got an email, "He found it. What? That doesn't make any sense." She turned to the screen showing the three navis, "Did Tomahawkman and Knightman find Regal?"

"Yeah, he wouldn't stop typing! It was like he was hypnotized or something," a green navi said, a tomahawk on his shoulder, as he walked forward. He nodded to Colonel, "Knightman's clearing out the rest of them. Have to say, whatever you gave those standard navis really packed a punch. Dark Navis started to lose a lot of their power within five minutes!"

Tox blushed, "Happy to be of service!"

"Again with the mood-OW!" he said hopping on one foot with a still sweetly smiling Tox.

"Huh it still doesn't make any sense," Emerald continued, "According to the old man, one of them went to Kotobuki while the other went to some farther away location. Um...the Nebula Area?"

A stillness ran across the room. Tox was the one to break it, "Did anyone ever check to make sure that Soul Net was destroyed?"

"The volcano erupted; nothing was left." Colonel said.

"And you're sure? This is Regal after all. I don't think he's that dumb to put everything he owned into a volcano," Ghost questioned as he put his foot back on the ground, "Maybe something underground or underwater. The place was known for storms or something right? What if there was a backup somewhere close by where he could grab the data and reactivate Soul Net."

"With the Sync Program, that kind of broadcast…" Chuad murmured, not liking the results.

"Then we'll have to cut them off," Baryl said, "Colonel and Ghost will head to Kotobuki while Tox will head over to the Nebula Area."

Emerald shook her head, "Cutting them off won't do a thing. We already know who the Dark King is. And we only have a hunch about the Queen. However, do we really want to put either of them into a corner? I think Ghost and Tox should go to Nebula Area. Colonel, Tomahawkman, and Knightman should run interference at Kotobuki. That'll buy us some time to deal with the threat at the Nebula Area. We don't want them together but we don't want to go head to head unprepared."

Baryl looked hard at the girl. He really didn't like the idea of using his navi as a decoy; then again, she probably didn't like her sister's navi in that role either.

"I like the idea," the room's attention was brought to Lan. The teen had been pretty quiet for the whole fight, "It's crazy. Crazy enough to actually work. After what Tox and Ghost did, I'm sure they can beat whoever they want together."

"Don't give him a bigger head than he already has," Tox chided.

"Oh really Ms…." Ghost's insult died down as Tox gave him a harsh stare, "Alright, fine. Done for the day."

Baryl sighed, "Fine. But we have to make every second count. Chuad, I know you just jacked out Protoman but can you keep watch over the standard navis in Black Earth."

Chuad nodded, "Roger."

Baryl turned back to the others, "Alright everyone, go to your places. The world and," looking at Lan and Mayl, "The fate of the very people in this room are relying on us. Let's make them proud."

* * *

Ghost: *dancing around* What? It's not me but I'm glad Drusk is dead. One of the most unlikable characters I think I've thought up. At least Mortis is jealous driven. Drusk is just insane. Anypanel, Ghost and Emerald win all and it's time for the end phase. So, anyone else want to see some more Dark Hunter fights?

Update: Friday

*Yells* Sorry, everyone! I've got a thunderstorm of acid rain over me! So, I have to cut it short and see you guys next time on **MMBN5 Disconnect: Dark Empire, Episode 11: Rolling Out A Problem**! Anypanel, Ghost501 logging out!


	11. Episode 11

**Favoriter: Hellman76**

**Review Responses**

**MWSeraph: **Drusk is definitely one of the more troubled OCs I've made. He unnerves everyone. And today...Reina everyone!

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**Merge Contest Deadline August 30th!**

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**Episode 11: Rolling Out a Problem**

Dark Hub smiled as he downloaded the last of the data regarding the Sync Program. He wasn't very happy that the two Team Colonel navis had managed to break through Sparkman and Videoman, but that was why there was a Plan B. Whenever Regal typed something, it had saved the data in an off location file in the Kotobuki Train Station Server. He really needed to thank Searchman for getting that program for him. Regal had at least been able to finish the code before he was probably recovered by the navi's NetOps. Dark Hub had to admit, Videoman's nudging was very effective.

"There you are!" a voice called out as Dark Hub turned to see three navis in front of him. He sneered; he didn't think that they would have caught up with him so quickly. Then again, he did give off a large amount of power. It wasn't too hard to see them tracking him down easily. But, where were the two Dark Hunters? Shouldn't they have come with them to cut off the program from reaching its destination?

"Drop the program!" the black one, Colonel, shouted. Dark Hub's grip tightened. If they caught up to him, then they could have followed Reina… The navi's crimson eyes grew small in light of his discovery. If he found one hair touched by those Hunters, he was going to kill both of them. Granted, they were good as deleted when he got there, but it was the prejudice that counted.

"I'm afraid I can't do that!" Dark Hub pointed his buster at them while downloading the file. He would have to carry it in him until he dealt with these pests, "Where are the Dark Hunters!" He roared, having a bad feeling he knew where they were. They wouldn't have stayed behind in Black Earth and if these navis were here, that meant that the others were gone since they had orders to let anyone out alive.

"They're still at Black Earth. We split up; they're still fighting Slur and Drusk." Tomahawkman said. Dark Hub's eyes narrowed. Unlikely, Drusk would never let anyone out of a battle and Slur would never let anyone pursue Reina.

Making up his mind, Dark Hub charged his weapon. He was barreling through them. He needed to get to Reina, triple time.

Knightman stepped forward and swung his arm, "Royal Wrecking Ball!" The spiked ball popped out and launched at Dark Hub. The navi jumped back and fired the half charged shot. When the ball retracted, it had been damaged. A piece of it had been blown off by the buster shot. The others grimaced as the buster was once against pointed against them.

Dark Hub smirked as he was beginning to charge another shot, "Are you sure you want to still be in the way?"

* * *

"Fun place…" Ghost commentated as he and Tox landed in the Off-Shore Nebula Area. The network was surrounded with a murky purple sky. The tiles were black and crimson in different places. The whole place screamed nightmare really. Apparently, Regal had developed a base off the coast of the volcano to work as a back up for Soul Net. Of course with his arrest, he never got the chance to use it and with the volcano destroying everything no one had bothered to ask. It kinda frightened them to think if the man had escaped that he had the potential to continue on as scheduled.

"You could say that again," Tox murmured as she looked around, walking behind Ghost.

"Be careful you two, you're in enemy territory now. And according to this, you're very close to the whoever came here. Hopefully, Colonel and the others can buy us enough time to actually ID who it is," Emerald said. She was holding battle chips in her hand nervously, unsure of what kind of power was hiding behind this door.

"Maybe it won't be so bad. I mean it could be the Queen and she could be a total pushover," Amber said nervously, though she mumbled a sorry after earning a glare from Mayl.

Before the conversation continued, Ghost looked up. "Duck!" He said as he pushed Tox and himself out of the way of a speeding arrow. He had barely seen the weapon fly through the air as it impacted the ground. But then again, the blond hair in the distance was kinda sticking out in this type of dark environment.

"Hmph. So I guess there is a competent one in the Dark Hunter corp. Well I have to ask," a purple navi with blond hair stepped out of the shadows. An audible gasp was heard from Mayl as one older looking, dark soul Roll . EXE was revealed, "Do you think you stand a chance against the Dark Queen?"

"I'm happy, but then I'm not at the same time," Tox said as she entered a battle stance.

"The feelings mutual. Let's just get this wrapped up before Megaman gets here. Then we really will have a problem on our hands," Ghost agreed.

"Remember you guys. No anti-dark chips or moves, we need to keep her alive!" Amber pulled out a battlechip from her pocket.

"Battle Routine! Set!" Emerald started.

"Execute!"

* * *

"Hmm…" Reina said, putting an index finger on her lips, "I should play with you, but Hub could be back any minute. I really can't have the two of you battle ready running around here with his plans so close to success."

"His plans? What plans?" Ghost asked.

"It would be no fun if I told you, Dark Hunter. But for now, enjoy some of the last breaths you will take," she said as a dark aura surrounded her. Her gloves became thicker and gold while her boots turned silver. A sleeveless vest formed on her torso as she opened her purple red eyes. Her bodysuit turned deep black and purple lines went up her sides.

"Um...Ghost….please tell me I'm crazy and that she doesn't somewhat remind you off…" Tox stuttered.

"Bass? I stole his Get Ability program and used it on him. Turns out it works just as effectively as for me as it did for him. Now," a dark aura surrounded the Dark Elec Sword, "I applaud you two for getting this far. This probably means that Slur and Drusk were dealt with. However, I am no pushover like your NetOp suggested. I will delete both of you!" Reina growled as she began to advance menacingly.

"Roll! Stop! It's me, Mayl!" Mayl pleaded, yelling at the screen. Seeing Roll about to attack snapped her out of her surprise stupor. It's just that, she was so shocked to see her. Despite believing she was alive, actually looking at her was somewhat of a new experience. Plus the was the fact of her appearance change that had caught her off guard. But now, it was time to bring her back. The navi paused for a moment and tilted her head momentarily.

However, the dark soul shook it soon after, "Nice try, but I'm afraid your navi's soul is mine. Roll will not be coming back anytime soon and I, Reina, shall remain!" the dark soul jumped from her spot and crashed her sword into the ground.

Ghost and Tox jumped out of the way. Ghost shook his head as he landed. "Sure didn't look like that to me. Perhaps, you yourself were shocked that she still remembered your name. Must have been pretty lonely for you out here all by yourself without your friend. Guess Roll got used to the fact the Megaman was still around and merely placated herself with that thought. Now that you're out, you've got the one person you couldn't find in Black Earth trying to fight for you!"

"Shut up! I control this body and mind! Not her! Dark Break!" Reina threw a tiny red orb at Ghost's feet.

The navi looked at it for a second, "What the heck is this supposed-"

"Life Aura! Download!" Emerald couldn't have slammed the chip into her PET sooner. The yellow aura was completely blown away seconds after it had appeared and Ghost was flung backwards into the ground. A huge crate lay where he had just been standing.

"Oh great, she managed to upgrade his attacks. Seriously, what does that program _not _do!" Ghost complained as he staggered back to his feet. The aura had protect him from any damage but even the shockwave he had felt packed a punch. At least he had been blown backwards other than allowed to fall through that hole. Who knew where he would have landed if he did?

'_It's going to be impossible for the Removal Needle to work when she has this much power. How the heck are we supposed to weaken a Bass-infused Dark Roll?'_ Tox thought as Amber downloaded a Lock Shot 3 chip. She locked on quickly to the navi and fired.

Reina turned her head and saw the attack coming. Before the shot could hit her, she moved out of the way. The Lock Shot impaled the ground behind her, leaving no scratches on Reina, "I'm sorry, were you aiming for me? I couldn't tell." She smirked as she speed over to Tox and kneed her in the gut before chucking her into Ghost.

Both Dark Hunters spiraled backwards and fell on the ground. Tox groaned as she got up, "If I remember correctly, didn't Roll's profile say she was already a fast navi? Now, she's even faster and with Bass-steroid strength. You thinking this is a little nuts?"

"I think you should get off me before she decides to attack again!" Ghost said as a grey blade appeared on his hand. If they continued this way, they were going to get deleted!

"No, no, no. I can't have _you_ playing with any battle chips. Dark Thorn!" a whip with spikes formed into her hands as she snapped it. The spikes flew off the whip and speed towards Ghost with great speed. he managed to dodge most of them, but got clipped by one. As the navi recovered, he realized that the blade was gone...along with the Anti-Sword chip he was about to use.

"And she can still destroy battle chips...lady what the hell are you on!" Ghost growled as Emerald downloaded two more chips, the Elec and Ice Gloves. At least she had cleared his data for him.

Reina looked curiously at him, wondering why the navi wasn't becoming bugged. In a few seconds she began to shake her head, "Silly me. I got too excited to try this form out. Dark Stage!" The ground underneath them turned purple.

"Whatever she was expecting to happen to Ghost didn't. But that stage must mean she's planning something," Emerald noted as she tried to think. But just what exactly was it? Was he going to turn into a dark navi himself? Whatever the outcome of that attack was supposed to do, Emerald didn't want to figure out just what it was.

"Why don't you just get rid of it with the Holy Stage!" Mayl said quickly. Emerald gave the girl an annoyed glance. She knew they were kinda friends and Mayl was really worried about her navi, but for everyone's sakes let her do her job! "The Holy Stage would only be temporary. She probably just turn it back into a Dark Stage sooner or later. We'll just have to play along for now."

Mayl's face creased with worry. When she first saw Roll, she had been so happy. She had been alive all this time. Her best friend was still alive! But then, she remembered she was a dark soul. And taking one look into the navi's purple red eyes, she knew that if Roll still existed in there she had been forced deep down into the darkness. She had never seen her navi have such a thirst for chaos and battle. It wasn't going to be so easy to get her back to the way she was.

Amber put a hand on the girl's shoulder, "We'll get her back. Promise. But first we need to deal with this Bass Cross."

"You can try. But you'll fail. You won't defeat me. You won't save Roll. And you won't stop Hub." Reina said matter of factly. She would either delete them now or stall until Hub showed up and they both deleted them.

"Don't mock my NetOp!" Tox said, instinctively pulling out her buster. The room began to tense as Tox leveled her dark soul killing weapon. There wasn't a guarantee that the poison wouldn't extend into Roll's actually lifespan when they turned her back.

Reina looked at her with open arms, "Go ahead. Shoot me. Though I have to ask, one needle or a bunch? I guess it doesn't matter, but I'd love to see Mayl's face when you've poisoned me and leave me to die. "

Tox growled as she put down the buster. She needed a plan, but there was no way she was going to be able to hit Reina with anything long range and short rage was Ghost's specialty. How on earth was she going to be able to give Reina the Removal Needle? If she wasn't weakened, then she would just reject the data. She needed a surprise attack. Something that no one would expect. Tox's eyes sparkled. This was going to hurt, but hey whatever got the job done sometimes. Amber looked down at her navi as Tox began to mumble something, "Hey Amber. I need a Lock On chip. Also, tell Emerald to have Ghost ready for a lay up."

"What? What are you talking about?" Amber said confused; Emerald equally so.

"I'm about to make a pass. I need Ghost to get it and _reject_ a body." Amber nodded slowly. She didn't understand completely, but she trusted Tox. And with what little time they had, they were going to need to just go with it. Emerald on the other hand was trying to contemplate what the heck Tox meant by reject a body. The only rejection chips she had were Anti-Damage, Anti-Sword, and Anti-...ooohhhh. Emerald smirked, she could do that.

"Lock On! Download!" Amber said.

Reina scratched her head. She had actually been kinda hoping that these Dark Hunters would give her the entertainment that they gave the guards. But this was just getting boring if she was in control _all_ of the time, "This lock on stuff again? I thought we already established I'm too fast for you."

"Area Steal! Gravity Panel! Download!" Amber added as a thought burst into her head.

Tox surged forward and tagged the spot Reina was standing on. The ground underneath the dark navi began to turn into a weird blue panel with small holes on it. Tox jumped away before she got caught in a panel that was keeping Reina planted firmly on the ground. The Dark Queen tried to float or pull her legs but the gravity the panel was generating was too strong!

A small visor dropped down from Tox's helmet as she adjust the buster and fired. The shot grazed Reina as Mayl screamed. The Dark Queen dropped to her knees. It burned. The needle had sliced barely into her shoulder, but its programming was beginning to course through her system. She felt like someone had submerged her in a tub of cyber lava. However, Ghost's yell caught everyone's attention. The light blue navi was holding his hand as a needle sunk into him, "I SAID I WAS SORRY!" He yelled.

Reina could feel the weapon's power in her system. Something inside her was reacting to it. No wait...someone. The Dark Queen was beginning to become pained by the random attacks she was getting. That attack had been meant to wake up Roll from her locked up state. And it seemed to be work. But Reina could still make it through the pain and keep her control. However, she was going to make her pay for trying this.

"You bitch," she growled as she stepped back to her feet. Reina looked downright scary as a purple and red aura surrounded her. Yellow ribbons came up from the ground and wrapped around Tox, "I'll fry you and then I'll delete you line by line for trying that! I don't know what you were trying to accomplish by hitting your friend, but that was the last mistake you've made. Armageddon Circuit!"

Tox screamed as electricity ran through her. She cracked open an eye to see Ghost beginning to fall to the ground. _'Come on, Ghost. I know you can take it! Just like these sparks are nothing!'_ Tox gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw shut, determined not to make another noise.

Reina laughed darkly as she noticed this, "Tough girl huh? I appreciate that. It makes your pain more satisfying! Hell Strike!" Reina raised a hand as a purple orb reached its charge and she launched it at the purple navi. However, the Dark Queen looked back surprised as the Dark Hunter said let out only a tiny scream. When the smoke cleared, wheels had been embedded into the purple navi and began to sink into her, bugging her programming. She took one last look down the field before she let another noise out of her mouth.

"What the hell is wrong with you! You're about to die and you're laughing about this!" Reina asked, baffled.

"Oh," Tox laughed through her pain. The bug seemed to be confusion as she wasn't able to see very well at the moment. A minor one seeing as there were a lot worse things that could happen. But the pain of wheels going in her stung even worse than anything she had ever been through, "I'm not done yet."

Reina sneered, "You seem like it to me."

"And you my soon to be friend are not careful with your surroundings."

Reina blinked as she acknowledged her words. She had raged out...where was the other Dark Hunter! As she turned around, her eyes grew big as Ghost, who had already leapt up in the air behind her, raised a fist. The Elec Glove sparked as the Removal Needle inside Ghost's hand charged. It had taken him a while to control the program from trying to "fix" his data, but he had final gotten the thing into a dormant state and ready to be reused.

"Anti-Navi! Download! Go for it, Ghost!" Emerald yelled.

"Nice cross, but I hate dress up!" The navi said as he punched Reina's navi symbol.

The blast knocked her back. The ribbons dissipated, leaving Tox to drop to the ground. Almost. The light blue navi came just in time to catch her. Amber quickly downloaded a couple Recovery Chips and a Bug Fix chip.

"Nice plan, but leave the reckless stuff to me will ya? Putting yourself through that kinda torture doesn't seem like your style," Ghost commented as he let the purple navi get to her feet.

"Don't get hit next time and then maybe I won't," she joked back as they turned their attention to the dark soul .

The purple navi groaned painfully as the Bass Cross disappeared. Reina closed her eyes painfully as the Removal Needle's programming was beginning to work its charm. Her color was beginning to return back to normal! The Dark Hunters both smiled, giving each other high fives, while in the real world people were cheering and Amber was shaking a disbelieving Mayl, who had streams of tears in her eyes. It was all so beautiful...until Roll screamed.

"AHHHH!" the area around the purple and pink navi gained purple lines. Roll's eyes were a mix of green in one and purple and red in the other. The navi couldn't take it! This pain was so much!

"Roll!" Ghost and Tox immediately ran over to her. The purple navi put her hand over the screaming one's icon, trying to see what was wrong with her. Protoman didn't have this kind of reaction so why did she? Then again, looking at her...why had she aged. If it was the Dark Power that did this, shouldn't all the other navis had followed suit? As Tox looked over her data, it took her seconds to figure out what was wrong, "Why does she have two…"

"Huh?" Ghost asked.

"She has two cores. The System Core is fixing itself fine. In fact, it even seemed to accept the Get Ability program and Bass's powers and her body is almost back to normal. But there's a second core that's going completely crazy. It's literally like its a war in there."

"What do you mean two?" Ghost asked again. He didn't know navis could have two cores. At least, navis that weren't Megaman due to his human soul had a Soul Core and a System Core.

Before anyone could make anymore suggestions, a blast rocketed both Tox and Ghost out of the way. Both navis groaned as they looked towards the entrance. A damaged Colonel dropped to the ground as he was jacked out.

Dark Hub was here.

The Dark King walked over to his Queen. Surprisingly, he didn't feel the disinterest in her with her shade of pink once again returned. However, he was more worried about the fact of her whimpering and pain. He pressed his hand on her symbol and couldn't help but smirk. So, after all this time, she had somehow developed a Soul Core to mimic his. Perhaps it happened as a result of their coupling. She must have hung around him so much that as a dark soul, she began to feed off of or copy his code in order to become more equal. So that she could keep up. Well, that would explain why she was the only navi other than him to age. The Dark Power had done something to the System Core as Dark Hub began to gain more power. Eventually, it had forced him to change his appearance. The same must have happened to Reina.

Hub placed a gentle kiss on her forehead as the navi stopped crying. Both icons began to glow as the noises died down. When Roll opened her eyes, they were more of a smokey green with a small hint of red still in them. Her body had changed back to her original but he had at least managed to recover her dark soul.

"I'm sorry, Hub. I let my aggression get the better of me," she said dejectedly. She had failed him.

"None of that matters now. Besides, we can still complete the goal," he said looking dangerously at the two Dark Hunters who were now glowing with the energy of a Full Energy sub chip, "We just need to deal with them first."

* * *

Ghost: Before anything else, the idea of Roll eventually adapting to learning how to have emotions and getting a soul really comes from True-inTha-Blue's _The Love of Many_. I have asked to borrow it for this story and it was approved. So to recap, Reina sort of feed off of Dark Hub's energy and her code soon began to adapt to his own because of it and we already know that Hub has a Soul Core. So yeah, Roll's now got a Soul Core since Dark Hub's data was essentially copied. Thanks to BalanceM88 for help with Bass Roll's attacks.

Update: Friday

Whelp, it's been fun but we all now what's happening next. It's time for the final fight! The Dark Royals versus the Dark Hunters! Even with Reina weakened, is it going to be enough for our duo to gain the tide of war. Be here next week for the final episode of **MMBN5 Disconnect: Dark Empire, Episode 12: Testing the Bonds **and the **Epilogue!** Ghost501 logging out!_  
_


	12. Final Episode

**Favoriter: **danparker

**Review Responses:**

**terratasha:** Yes, that's the second time I've been called that (which means that the quality of the story is good)! So yeah, happy to be called a lit tease. Makes me wanna write more. But yeah, who is ready to finally see Dark Hub talk to Lan in like six years (it's been a while since I looked at this thing's timeline XD).

**MWSeraph: **Final Operation! Set! Execute! Oh wait...you're a reader...um...Final Chapter/Episode! Posted! Read On!

**True-inTha-Blue:** No prob! And well, here it is!

* * *

**Sad Ghost Moment:** This is the last complete story I have in my Doc Manager. I've officially got no stories to upload until DN4 unless I get some spare time and write a one shot or something. I was toying with an AU not at all BN but using all the characters but I don't think I'll write it. At least not now. It's one of those stories I would probably have to put a lot of planning into and I don't really have the time to do that right now. However on the topic of Double Network...

* * *

**DN Explanation: **So, the reason why 3.5 isn't coming out next is simply because of the story itself. Gav and I are the official authors of Double Network as you all know and because we have plans after 3.5 we can't really share any of them with BassDS until 4 and 5 are produced and posted seeing as how he is only joining us for "3.5". After a couple of meetings, several plot proposals, and shot downs, we decided to push back the release of "3.5" til after the DN Series conclusion in DN5 and in doing so the "3.5" will act like a DN6, but as of right now there are no current ideas about the name of the DN/SF crossover.

So yeah, pretty much got stung by the fact that we can't release every detail and sometimes it's hard to come up with a plan when everyone on your team is not up to speed. Anypanel, to my DN fans, sorry to get you all hyped just to say that it's delayed but we'd all rather give you something good rather than something we threw to Cutman to chop up. We go for Slashman cooking around here.

...Alright alright, I'll stop with the BN puns/jokes

...for now!

* * *

**Roll Merge Contest (Aura and Terra) Deadline August 30th!**

* * *

**Episode 12: Testing The Bonds**

Ghost and Tox backed up nervously just a tiny bit. The Dark King was making no attempt to hide his power and it was actually getting to the two Dark Hunters just how much he was exerting. Dark Hub shot them a dark smirk as he let go of Reina/Roll in his arms, "What's the matter? Aren't you two supposed to be stopping me from engulfing the world in darkness?"

"You really think we're that stupid to get close to you? She has Bass's power; and you're well...you," Tox said as she lowered her buster, slightly unsure of whether or not to use it. A head to head with Megaman was a bad move with that air of unpredictability and another sneak attack seemed to be less of an option.

"Hub! Snap out of it!" Lan yelled at the monitor, suddenly grabbing everyone's attention. His brother…he was right there. So close but yet another million miles away. The scene reminded Lan when he had almost had to delete him as Dark Mega. He had barely convinced himself to do it then. Now, with the hurt as raw as ever, he wasn't sure if he would ever be sane if his brother was ripped away from him like this.

Hub gritted his teeth and sighed, "Lan. It's people like you in the world is the reason I'm doing this. You're incapable of change. Even six years and you're still too dependent on me. Still trying to get me to change back so that your life can go back to normal. Can't you see that the independent navis are the one who are superior. The individual stones that are brought together create the toughest wall. Navis cannot afford to be held back by the useless bonds these humans make to us. We all shall unite under a dark canvas and together will make this world our own! Without you humans who cling to us so desperately! And yes, since I know I have to spell things out for you, I do include you."

Silence surrounded the room as everyone gaped at Dark Hub's words. Lan felt numb. Useless bonds? Their connection. Their brotherhood? Useless? No, this wasn't right. There was no way that Hub would say that. It had to be the influence of whatever Regal had done to him. The teen had been in too much shock in his early years at the scene around him. When he had woken up, everything Regal had said was muddled. He could only remember patches and see his lips move without sound some times. So, he had come to the conclusion that Megaman had been infected with a Dark Chip again somehow. Maybe Regal had Nebula Gray power one up so that the Chaos Unison wouldn't work. As Lan continued to think, the quiet was broken.

"He...he…"

"Who?" Reina/Roll looked around angrily. Who dared insult Hub's dream?

"HAHAHA!" Ghost laughed. Tox looked at him crazily while Emerald just shook her head as she noticed Ghost make a sign with his hand behind his back. She always thought that her navi was sorta crazy, but normally she enjoyed his craziness. She smirked, having a strong feeling what he was "laughing" about, as she silently downloaded a Sonic Blade. Emerald whispered something to her sister.

"Oh, I'm sorry. That's just priceless. I mean...you're trying to destroy the very thing that made you one of the most revered and frightening navis on the planet! Also, renouncing who you really are! I love that bit! When did you rip out the human side of you and become a full data navi? Really when? I guess I should at least get you a cake or something for the birthdays missed!" Ghost cackled. For a second there, he was worried that they wouldn't have a way out of this mess.

"What did you say?" He sneered, infuriated. His red eyes blazed with irritation at the light blue navi.

"I said….Run! Sonic Blade!" Ghost yelled as he fired a sonic wave at the two navis. The wave of air managed to push them back far enough for him and Tox to make a run for it.

Amber saw her moment, "Geddon 2! Blinder! Download!" The panels around them started to crack and opened up holes all over the ground. Ghost grabbed Tox's hand and ran for the deeper section of the network. On the dark souls' side, Reina/Roll had grabbed Dark Hub's hand before he had fallen down a pit leading to the unknown darkness. Her Air Shoes were helping to keep them both from falling through.

"I'm...not...letting...go!" she strained. That punch to her core and the sudden break in her cross had weakened her severely, even with the extra energy from Hub. Still though, she wasn't going to let go. Neither side of her was prepared to. She barely pulled him back up to the point he could grab onto the ledge. Hub managed to heave himself up and balance on the small parts that hadn't taken a hit and lean against the only one of them who could float.

He narrowed his eyes as the pink navi caught her breath. The two Dark Hunters had three minutes head start on them. Three minutes too many.

* * *

"THAT WAS CRAZY!" Tox yelled as Ghost tugged her into the second and last area of the network.

"Did you have a better idea?" He yelled back as they continued to run, "You think it's back here?" he asked to Emerald.

"Has to be! You've got two minutes left to get ahead of them! Huh?" Emerald said as Baryl nudged her. He was holding a chip in his hands, a Colonel Army Chip to be precise. The black haired girl smiled as he nodded for her to take it. She downloaded it without hesitation as little soldiers began to pop up in the panels behind the two navis.

"Um...am I the only one who isn't enlightened by your little plan?" Amber asked, her nerves were _only_ somewhat racked.

"We can't beat Megaman in a straight on fight right now, but if we can destroy the transmitter he won't be able to broadcast whatever he's trying to send to the world. We can stop his plan now and focus on the navi later. But then that means we need to give these guys as much time as possible to get there." Emerald explained quickly as Mayl walked over to her.

The red haired girl reached in her pocket and placed a battle chip in Emerald's hand, "I'm not sure how much good it'll do, but if you can find a use for an Anti-Navi Chip then maybe there's some hope."

Emerald looked down to see it was an Mettuar Virus chip. She nodded back at Mayl, "We'll get her back. She's on the edge, you saw her yourself. We just need to tip her over." She said before downloading the chip. Mettuars of various types appeared next the soldiers. The EXs, the ones with gray helmets, slammed their pickaxes into the ground and the shock wave produced poison and cracked panels.

Mayl looked over behind her. Chuad was still focused on his work in Black Earth while Lan was still looking at the monitor. She wasn't sure if she had seen him blink in the last couple of minutes. She walked back over to him as Emerald smirked, '_And she said he wasn't her boyfriend.' _She wasn't stupid enough to not see that she loved him. She was just blinding herself to it.

* * *

"Get in your cell!" the guard roughly pushed Regal into the small room. He had been dropped off by two NetOps earlier after they had recovered him in an abandoned building in Kotobuki. The man fell to the ground roughly as the door was closed behind him. He breathed a sigh of relief as he got up and saw that the door didn't have an electric lock.

Videoman had some...elegant tastes as a dark soul. But in the end, it wasn't even the navi's twisted mind that had broken him. What made him work so hard was the fact that he knew he would fix his mistake. Seeing Dark Hub reminded him of something he had seen in an old SciLab file regarding the Navi Project, mainly the side of the project forged by Yuichiro Hikari. He had seen the file after he had looked into some old SciLab archives when he was still a trusted scientist.

There had been several who had voiced their concerns against importing a human into the cyber world. One of the foremost complainers was a Dr. Maximus Robinson. The man had been a scientist and SciLab worker for ten years when Megaman was created. Apparently, he believed that darkness would exist on the Net and that having a navi with such human abilities would be the end to them all. When the navi had been created, the doctor left the science labs swearing that if it acted out of line at all, he would return to destroy it.

When Videoman had seen the footage that Videoman played, it reminded Regal of such terrors that man was capable of. However, his mind had been numbed by the time Videoman had appeared. He was a brilliant mind. He realized who he had been up against shortly after the navi had introduced himself. In an old SciLab journal he had read, he had discovered the name Hub Hikari, the deceased second born son of the Hikari family. It hadn't taken him long to realize that Megaman was the reborn child, Hub, in light of the Navi Project. It wasn't like Hub was a popular name after all.

Dr. Maximus was right. A navi with Megaman's capabilities was extremely dangerous and he had activated his evil soul with the power of Nebula Gray. And Regal would be damned if he was to live in a world created by that navi human hybrid. The Sync Program would work, but there would be a great catch indeed.

The doctor smiled as he laid back on the small cot. By the end of the day, the world would be safe and no one would know that he was the hero. Well...until he found a practical way of ruling the world without making it seem like he left his cell.

Back to the drawing board.

* * *

"There's the console!" Tox yelled as activated her buster and started firing needles at the machine. As the projectiles sunk into the machine as the programming inside of it started to bug due to the poison. How exactly poison affected a machine, Tox didn't really now. She was just gad to see it working.

Ghost turned his head to hear the sound of guns going off and a lot of "Met!"s behind them, "Not a moment too soon. They'll be here any minute!" Ghost activated a Elec Sword and stabbed it into the ground, causing the machinery to start frying out. Emerald downloaded a Data Clear chip before sending another round of chips.

"Program Advance! Spreader! Triple Download! Hyper Burst!" both NetOps shouted as the advance appeared on their navis' hands and they fired. The result was a _very_ destroyed area, but the job had been done. Nothing was left of the console or much of the area it had been on. The backup Soul Net was a bust.

"I don't believe it...we did it!" Tox said before she felt a presence behind her. An angry, dark presence. She had barely made it out of the way before the dark navi threw a fireball at her.

"Um..is there a fireball chip we don't know about?" Ghost asked as he too was dodging attacks from the navi as well.

"No, but there is going to be a pain chip coming soon with your faces on it!" Hub roared as two small chains appeared around his wrists. Three small spikes on both sides of his shoulders ejected out as his bodysuit turned purple with blue streaks running across his torso. Flames danced off of his body. His crimson eyes seemed to glow red with anger.

"That's…" Baryl stopped short. They thought it had been destroyed with everything else in Soul Net. Wait, could Megaman even download something that big?

"Well? What the hell is that supposed to be!" Emerald yelled, shaking the man for some kind of answer. From what she could tell, Megaman's power had just shot through the room, decided to come back into it, mess it up even more, and ascended again into the heavens.

"Nebula Gray…" Lan said in disbelief as he dropped to his knees. He had been unconscious for the time when the digital form of man's evil was installed into his brother. He had thought it was just a Dark Chip. He hadn't know that man's evil essence in full had been inside of him! And now, he was seeing the results of this events in full. Not even a Dark Mega could compare to this.

"A...Nebula…Gray...Cross?" Ghost asked uneasily. You know…fighting Megaman in his base form didn't seem so bad anymore.

The navi sneered angrily at the two Dark Hunters, unaware of Roll/Reina somewhat checking him out, though she seemed to be having some kind of internal debate about it.

"You two are the first to make me push this extreme. But you'll be the last!" A dark blue flame came into existence and circled around him, "Since the humans are here, then I assume your goal is to save Roll and Hub Hikari from the darkness. Well, that won't be much of an option." He said as he placed the flame within himself and stepped in front of the pink navi.

"NO!" Lan yelled.

"Lan?" Mayl asked, concerned about him.

The boy slammed his fists into the control panel as the room went completely quiet. "That flame is the only thing that can damage Nebula Gray. He's invincible otherwise." He murmured, his eyes completely dead.

"You won't be saving Hub Hikari because the only way to get to me is through him! Delete my Dark and Soul Core if you wish, but just knowing that you would have failed in your efforts will be good enough for me!" Dark Hub raised his hand as a fire ball grew in his hand, "Now die! Grave Fire!"

Both navis tried to jump out of the way. However, they were forced back in when Roll/Reina started firing arrows at them from behind Gray Cross Hub. She wasn't strong enough yet to go back into Bass Cross, but she could still fight from behind the scenes.

The fire singed the navis as Hub started firing again. The two navis tried to get back up to their feet, but the barrage of enemy fire kept them from going too far. Emerald and Amber looked at each other. They still couldn't use any of their best chips, but this kind of power against them. Well, let's just say it was hard to keep their hands away from their chips on the account that most of them either would work or would definitely cause harm to Megaman's Dark Core.

Finally though, the scene was enough to cause someone to snap.

"Roll stop! Please! I know you're there! Stop helping Megaman! We can bring you both back!" Mayl said. She glanced at her PET. It was the most current model; despite not having Roll, she never failed to update the device...just in case she came back, "Please, I need you back. I love you. You've been my best friend for my whole life. I've felt like there's been a hole in my heart for years. Please, come back. I know you're in there somewhere. I'm begging you...please come back," she said as tears began to fall. She tried to keep her composure for as long as she could. Roll needed to hear her. Two cores or not, she was still in there. She had to be. Despite not looking the part, she was a strong navi. She knew she was.

Upon the next fireball, there were no arrows keeping Ghost and Tox from dodging completely. As the Nebula Gray cross turned around, he could see his pink navi gripping her head. She staggered a moment trying to point her arrow at the navis, but something was holding her back, "_Mayl…_"

_A bright light began to shine once again. The dark queen sneered as she brought back out her whip, "Impossible. I've grounded you twice now! How are you still getting back up!"_

_In front of her was a girl with blond hair that only went down to the middle of her back. Despite having an older body, she still moved like a newborn. In many ways she was. She was born in darkness but still only knew the path of light. In the shadows, she had found a data file in her systems and had recovered memories that she didn't even know she had. However she knew one thing, she had been complacent for too long. And she was calling for her. She had missed her. And she was going to let herself be the cause of her pain anymore._

"_I'm...not...leaving her again!" the girl yelled as she hurled a pink orb at the queen. She jumped back and stared at the lighter half in disbelief. The queen could feel the burning sensation again. That needle...was that program still running? No, her love's energy should have dissipated it. Then...what the heck was giving her this pain?_

"_I'm not letting you keep me here anymore! I may love Hub, but I will not betray my friend!" the girl roared as she fired another orb. This time as it hit the ground, more explosions went off around the Dark Queen. The girl started walking closer and closer to her._

_The queen snapped her whip at her and wrapped it around her arm, "Submit. You've lost! Just be a good little girl and go back to your Soul Core!" Electricity ran along the length of the weapon and zapped the girl. But she merely gritted her teeth and pressed forward._

"_No! I've been locked up for too long. Granted, I was hidden away when I was created, but I won't remain silent anymore! I don't care what it takes. She's more than my friend to me. I love her! And I'm not letting you get in my way anymore! Now, get the hell out of my body!" the girl reared back and punched the queen straight in her chest._

"_You don't understand do you...you're just as tainted as he is. You can never get rid of me!" she sneered as she grabbed hold of the arm that had gone through her._

"_Then I'll learn how to suppress you. Maybe drawing off your power will be enough to keep you quiet!" the girl began to glow pink as the aura surrounded them both. Soon enough, the queen found herself being absorbed by him._

"_No...no...this can't be possible. I can't be beaten by you! You're...you're just a navi!" she screamed in pain as the light began to engulf the whole area._

"_Well...he made me more than just data…"_

"AAGGHHH!" she screamed as her navi symbol began to crack. Mayl's eyes widened in fear as she realized the very thing that held a navi's core data was beginning to break. However, as soon as it broke data from inside of her began to take over the areas where the symbol was gone. The data compiled itself and reformed the symbol. Her heart was still present, except it was a bright blue instead of pink. The background became a mix between a mix between red and pink. Her helmet symbols had a slash mark running across it in a diagonal fashion.

To Dark Hub's disappointment, her eyes revealed the bright green that one side of him had missed for years.

Mayl couldn't talk as her navi blinked a couple of times and her PET began to go off. _Navi data, Roll . EXE, downloaded. Navi reconnected to PET. _Without hesitation, she jacked Roll out of the network. As she reformed back in the PET, Mayl crushed the device in a hug. She heard the laugh that she had been dying for six years to hear again.

"I'm lucky I can't breathe. I'm pretty sure you would have crushed all my ribs with that one," Roll joked as Mayl pulled back the device to look at her. The two didn't speak for a moment before Roll smiled at her with her warm green eyes. Not the purple red ones that she had had for years, but her true colors had returned, "I'm back. Sorry I was so late. It was dark outside, but you brought me back."

"Roll…" Mayl whimpered before finally letting herself cry. But for once, at least they were happy tears.

* * *

'_I really hope that killed his spirit. At least then, he'll be less likely to fight right?'_ Ghost thought as Roll was jacked out. He saw Tox smile next to him. At least now one of the navis had been returned back home. Plus now, it was two on one rather than two on two.

"You...you took her…" he murmured. Dark Hub felt numb. Reina had been his constant; she had been the only way he didn't completely become the lion in its darkened rage and held onto his sanity. She had been the one thing he had never been tempted to destroy. The one compromise he never went against, even in his darkened state. Without her, there wasn't anything to stop him from becoming the beast that everyone was afraid of.

'_On second thought. Please let his spirit be fine. I don't like where this is going all of a sudden…'_ Ghost thought as the navi looked at them with expressionless eyes.

"YOU TOOK HER!" he roared as he fired a wave of energy...which turned into more waves...and more waves. The impact slammed into both Dark Hunters as they were thrown backwards.

Ghost moaned as he tried to stand back up. That blast had drained him of at least half of his energy and looking at the dark navi, he seemed better than ever.

"Mega!" Roll said from her PET. Mayl looked nervously at Lan after she had whipped her eyes. The boy hadn't said anything since Megaman had crossed Nebula Gray. The pink navi turned to Mayl, "I still have the Bass Cross, maybe I can talk to him?"

"No! I'm not risking losing you again!" Mayl screamed. She didn't look back at Lan after she said it; she couldn't. She knew she was being selfish, but she had _just_ gotten her back. Part of her had just healed from the infection that had torn her apart for years. She didn't want to have such a wound torn open so soon.

"Your heart is in the right place, Roll, but with your recent transformation back and the events before then, you may not be ready to go back to fight just yet. The Bass Cross may cause more damage to you than what it is worth at the moment," Baryl explained as Mayl blew a sigh of relief.

The pink navi looked back nervously at the screen. '_Hub...'_

The red haired girl stared from the screen, to Lan, and back on the screen. Dark Hub threw an orb which turned into a snake that rushed the field and smashed into the ground. Ghost and Tox had managed to roll out of the way but the impact it had made was much more deadly. Several more panels were cracking and holes were appearing all around the area. And with the little area they had left, the Dark Hunters would lose. Even without Roll there, Ghost couldn't get close and Tox couldn't line up a shot with all the chaos going on. The girl knelt down in front of Lan trying to get his attention, "Lan, you need to talk to Mega...no Hub. Your brother! He needs you!"

"Nebula Gray…"

"Come on snap out it! You spent years searching for him. You risked breaking into SciLab to try and get yourself on the Net to search for him. You knew what had happened to him and because he looks like an enemy you're going to flip out on him!" Mayl shook him hard, trying to get him out of his daze.

"TOX!" Amber screamed. Mayl looked up just in time to see the purple navi being slung across the ground. Somehow, she must have jumped into the wrong direction and had landed in front of Dark Hub's line of fire. As she smacked the hard floor, her helmet broke in two. When she stopped skidding, she didn't move. She wasn't deleted, but it looked like she had blacked out.

Ghost was struggling to get back up to his feet, "Amber! Jack her out now! She's a sitting duck!"

Amber made a sorry face at her sister as she pulled out her navi. Emerald nodded, if it had been Ghost she would have done the same. Which from the looks of things, was going to be in a few more hits. She had burned out all of her Recovery Chips. And every Aura Chip she had got destroyed in one hit anyway.

Dark Hub walked over to the weakened light blue navi. Emerald's eyes blazed. Enough of this crap. She walked over to the brunette and pulled him from out of Mayl's hands. The brown eyed boy looked into the crimson eyes of the girl before his head was whipped backwards. She had punched him...again.

"We did it for you. We didn't use any chips that could hurt him. Tox didn't poison him and Ghost didn't destroy his Dark Core! We laid off the heavy stuff to make sure that we wouldn't kill him. But I swear to you if you don't get off your ass and talk to him, I will delete him!" Emerald yelled in his face, "I don't care anymore, Hikari! Ghost is my friend too! He's been there for me just like Roll and Megaman have been there for Mayl and yourself. Asking me to trade his life for your brother's...I'm sorry. I can't do it. Fix your navi! Otherwise the next order I'm giving Ghost is a direct order to get rid of him!"

"Emerald…" Mayl started, concerned for Lan.

"NO! He's being selfish! You reached out to Roll and she responded," she turned away from the girl and back at Lan, "If your bond is so great, call off your brother. NOW!" she yelled.

"GAAH!" Ghost said as he was bashed into the ground. It was getting harder to move again. The data repaired by that last recovery chip was once again undone. Every chip he had was either useless or broken. Their only options left were the Midnight and Drake Blades. And last time he checked, he was supposed to keep Megaman alive.

"Well...this has been fun. But since you've taken everything from me, I will obliterate you with everything I have. Prepare for your deletion Dark Hunter. Sync Program!" the dark navi began to have purple rings formed around him, "Now, di-" The crossed navi could feel something like a stabbing effect on the inside. He keeled over as he moaned. Not now. Hub couldn't be deciding to wake up now! But then, what else was this rush? The Full Synchro had formed perfectly. So then why did he feel so...incomplete?

'_You are always linked,'_ a voice rang in Lan's head. Just like it had done so many years ago. Just like he had always told himself. His whole reason for believing that Megaman was still alive. His eyes widened as he heard Dark Hub struggling after the program had run. He was an idiot. A stunned doe-eyed idiot. And there he was, proving to him that he was still there. He just needed some help.

"Emerald, give me your PET," Lan said.

The raven haired girl gave him a bewildered look, "The hell?"

"Look, I will talk to him. But if you want to beat him without hurting him, I need to do it. I know his moves the best," he explained quickly.

Emerald looked at him for a moment before smirking, "You know I'm going to slug ya again for waiting this long to get back in action right?"

"Yeah, I guess that's fair," Lan sighed as he took the PET from her, "Alright, Ghost! I'm going to send you some battle chips alright?"

"Please let some of those be recovery chips…" the navi mumbled as he barely managed to get back up. He honestly couldn't wait until this day was over. After being knocked in the head and shot in the hand by Tox and beaten to a pulp by Dark Hub, the only thing he wanted to do was take a nap.

"Roger that," Lan said as he directed his attention back to the screen, "I'm sorry I doubted you, Hub. But I'm going to make up for that now! Ghost! Final Operation! Set!"

"Execute!"

* * *

"Recover 300! Double Download! Fire Sword! Download!" a pink aura quickly appeared and disappeared as some of Ghost's data was repaired. A fire sword appeared on his hand. Ghost ran forward towards the weakened navi.

Hub shook off the feeling for the moment and grabbed the sword before breaking it over his knee. Ghost jumped back as the dark navi fired shots from his buster, "Lan! Pretty sure a close combat game is out! But long ranged isn't that nice of an option either with that fire he throw around. But at least he seems to be concerned with someone else" he mumbled as the dark navi was clutching at his navi symbol.

"Just...die…Dark Serpent," once again the snake rose up and crashed into the ground, breaking more panels and making the area even more unstable.

"Area Steal! M-Cannon! Download!" Ghost surged forward and appeared next to the navi. He fired his cannon directly at him, though avoided hitting the navi's symbol.

"Why...gaahh...won't...you...die?" Hub groaned as he staggered back. The pain was getting worse. What was wrong with him? He was fine up until… Regal. No. Videoman had broken him! This...this wasn't happening. Regal did not betray him. He would have been to scared to dare defect from him!

"Hey Lan? You noticing it too right?" Ghost asked.

"Yeah, since he tried using the Full Synchro program he's been getting weaker." Lan noted.

"You don't think that the program is made to kill him do you? It was Regal who programmed it," he said.

"Well let's not wait and find out," Lan responded, not liking the conclusion, "Hub! I know you're in there! You can beat this! You beat him before and you can beat him again! And then, we can all go home! Dad and Mom have missed you a lot. I...I missed you a lot. It wasn't easy not having you to nag me about homework or to care about school. Sometimes I wonder how I actually graduated without you. But I don't want to live the rest of my life without you by my side. You're not just my navi; you're my brother! Come back Hub! I know you can do it! Snap out of it!"

"_Grr...Lan..._Shut up!" the dark navi exploded as a shock wave of energy blew Ghost back. The navi quickly recovered his footing seeing as how not doing so would have sent him over the edge and noticed that the dark navi was trying to stop the Sync Program. He was trying to tear apart the rings that surrounded him.

"What a second...Lan! It's the Full Synchro! As long as it's up, Hub's around to break free. We need to stop him from tearing it apart!" Ghost said, putting the pieces together. The program was generating power for both the System _and _Soul Cores!

"Wait. Emerald, you have that Holy Stage and Dark Trap chip?" Lan asked.

"Yeah, it's right-Hey! You could've at least asked," she replied as he snatched the chips from her hand and downloaded it into the PET.

"I like your style, kid!" Ghost said as the yellow panels took effect and several wires took hold of Hub.

"What the hell is this!" he roared as the wires sunk in.

"Program Advance! Elec Pulse 3! Trumpy! Discord! Sonic Blast!" Lan activated the attack as an amplifier of sorts appeared on Ghost's hand.

"Hope you like buggy programming!" Ghost yelled as a loud noise echoed throughout the network and hit Dark Hub. The navi looked wildly at him with eyes a mix of green, brown, and crimson.

Lan yelled, "SNAP OUT OF IT! WAKE UP HUB!"

"_I don't care who you are! You're not taking this body back!" the dark knight roared. Over the years, he had come wear the lion as an armor. He had gotten used to living in his kingdom. However, someone had started to break down the doors that kept him in the pit. And now, he was engaged in a sword fight between someone who he had thought he would never see again._

"_You underestimated the power of bonds and Full Synchro! There is no way to fully harness its power without the bond of a NetOp and Navi! Your misuse of its power is disgusting! Your degradation of this network is horrible! I can't believe I let you almost destroy me so many years ago!" Hub yelled as his blade grew darker, even a bit purplish in color._

"_Oh, using my power eh?" the knight smirked._

"_No, just borrowing soon to be friends'. By the way, I've had enough of you! I'm taking my body back! Toxic Blade!" Hub yelled as the shiny purple blade cracked the knight's Dark Blade and pierced through the his armor. They stood there like that for no one knew how long before the knight started cackling. The knight pushed himself on the sword and brought himself closer to Hub. The swordsman reached up and yanked off his helmet._

_As the two looked at each other, Hub saw himself...just with red eyes, "Do what you may...you will never get rid of me. Nebula Gray was just the beginning of this. I've been here since the very day you were born. Kill me here but," he said as he pointed to his lighter half's chest, "You'll never get rid of me there. And that my friend, is the most refreshing news I've had in years. Have fun living in fear of the greatest weapon to the world ever created...you."_

"AAAHHHHHHH!" Hub roared as the dark colors drained from out of him and was replaced with the old blue regalia. His Navi Symbol returned to its glorious yellow and red color scheme. It probably didn't break due to the fact that his programming was returning to normal while Roll's had to adapt to the new core. As the change finalized, he walked forward a couple of feet before being jacked out immediately.

The light blue navi sighed happily, "It's over. It's actually over," Ghost said as he heard to cries of joy from Lan and the others in the room, "Hey Emerald, mind getting me outta here? I feel like crap."

He smirked as he heard his NetOp's laugh, "Sure thing partner. And by the way, thanks...for everything."

"We're friends aren't we?"

"Yeah?" she said uncertainly, not sure what he was trying to prove.

"Then why are you thanking me? If I'm your friend and your navi, I'm supposed to look out for you."

Emerald laughed, "Point taken. Alright, Ghost. Jack out."

* * *

**Epilogue: One and A Half Years Later**

"Explain to me again why I'm here?" Emerald said as the made another round in the mall.

"Because, you're not going to go dressed like that to the party tonight." Amber said while Mayl rolled her eyes. She already knew how this conversation was going to go. Behind her, Lan was dragging behind. He too was not happy about being involved on this little escapade.

"And besides, no one has picked up Christmas presents yet. Well you know, besides us navis." Ghost commented before being jabbed by Tox.

"We all know Ghost. You know, if you if you wanted a specific present, you should've just asked asked earlier like the rest of us." the purple navi said.

"Well a certain couple in the area failed to tell me when we were putting in requests…" Ghost sent a mock glare over to Roll and Megaman.

"Don't blame us because you were asleep when we emailed you." Roll responded. Her arm was linked around Megaman's own as the blue navi sent an apologetic look to the lighter blue one. He wasn't about to get into this argument.

"That's Ghost 0, Roll and Tox...I lost track. Ghost, how much are you down by?" Mayl asked cheekily.

"I hate everyone but Emerald…" Ghost sighed.

"Aww...we know you love us," Roll said poking him.

Over the past year and a half, the four navis and humans actually managed to become a strong group of friends. Emerald became sorta of the kid sister to Mayl while becoming more of Lan's older one, despite being two years his junior. Amber on the other hand was more of the mother of the group. Mayl and Lan eventually started dating, being official for about a year now. In other news, the relationship between Lan and his father were slowly being repaired. It wasn't easy getting past everything, but things were beginning to look up. Mainly because Lan _guessed_ he could see why roaming the Net could have been detrimental to his health and Dr. Hikari _thought_ that he had not done enough to find his son.

Roll and Megaman continued their relationship as a married couple, though they started their lives officially a few days after they settled back into their lives as "normal" Net Navis. It was quite interesting explaining the whole marriage and human and artificial soul thing to everyone, especially to both of the NetOps families. Ghost and Tox resigned as Dark Hunters. There wasn't a need for them anymore. Dr. Richardson had disbanded the group a few days later. Although he was facing some scrutiny from the officials, it appeared that no one would be placing charges. His work had been quite beneficial, despite its glaring detriments. Since their NetOps had become friends, the navis too bonded. Although, Ghost and Tox acted like the older siblings in the group.

"So, is that it for the shopping?" Lan groaned. They had been walking for hours. It was actually a miracle that Emerald hadn't started complaining earlier.

"Yeah I think so. Chuad's Christmas party is tomorrow evening right?" Amber asked.

"That's what the email said," Megaman confirmed, "Man, hard to believe last year…"

"You're telling me. Last year, we were all ready to kill each other and now we're all family. We'll with the except of the dating couples in the room." Ghost commented, "Now, we're just waiting for the two humans to give each other rings to catch up since their navis just so happened to shotgun it behind everyone's backs."

Tox and Roll gave each others sly looks before they both elbowed Ghost for the shotgun comment, "Why did you do that?" he groaned after getting the wind knocked out of him, "Megaman, seriously put out a warning when your wife isn't being herself!"

"You know, I may not have a whip...but I've still got my antenna.." Roll gave Ghost an evil smile. He could have sworn he saw them curl up into horns.

The navi quickly put his hands up, "Alright, alright! Geez, no one takes a joke around here…"

"You know, minus the comment, he's actually kinda spot on. And then we all are kinda close to each other in terms of colleges," Mayl noted.

"It still surprises me that Emerald's actually some kind of genuis," Lan said.

"Oh really, and what's your excuse Mr. Scientist!" she asked as she jumped up, put Lan into a headlock, and gave him a noogie.

"Hey! Watch the hair!" Lan said while everyone else just laughed at the now normal antics of their little group. Sure they all had their past problems, but they were always there for the other. Even if a few punches had to be thrown to get the point across. And in the end, that's what counts. Working past the disconnections of life and discovering just how to keep everything together.

All in one special connection.

* * *

Ghost: Done. Finally done. In the end, I have to say, this was fun to write. Got to include myself, not sure how you all felt about it, but I thought it was cool. Don't expect me in DN...at all (I'm actually not joking, Ghost. EXE is local to this "TV" Series unless you guys really want me to write another story with him). Sure, some areas were harder to write than others but in the end, I had a good time.

So what'd you guys think? Think I should adopt this episode style of writing? Think I should go to one a week uploads (XD From reviews and PMs, I'm pretty sure I'd get an inbox full of angry responses if I went to that.) Should I do something past this story involving these guys (aka, write a sequel?)? Review! Ghost501 logging out! Thanks for watching/reading!

Megaman Double Network 4 Upload Date: ? (Currently under review; writing and planning completed)

DN Quiz: What was the first epilogue story (NOTE: This is a trick question. I mean the FIRST DNE not the first DNE. Get what I mean?)

_Sorry, I actually don't have anything to offer in terms of a reward right now. I guess if you just want the challenge. Hehe...sorry bout that! However, on August 30th there will be a special Double Network Release. For a while, you all have heard about some of the infamous tracks that DN could have taken...well...it's time to release some of them. On the 30th, a Double Network behind the scenes story will be shown pretty much being the dump folder for the DN chps that didn't make the cut. The first and most infamous one being DNB: I'm Tired._


End file.
